在一个凉爽的秋夜，一名身着关羽装扮的男子——这位传奇大将军生活在1800年前——骑着黑马在体育场内驰骋。看台上2.6万名观众爆发出欢呼，随即响起雷鸣般的助威口号：“益阳必胜！”近两小时后，益阳队以0比1不敌实力更强的对手长沙队，后者是湖南省的省会。益阳队球员身穿亮橙色球衣，沾满泥土，袜子在激烈的拼抢中被扯破，他们忍不住流下了眼泪。
ON A COOL autumn night, a man dressed as Guan Yu, a legendary general from 1,800 years ago, mounted his black steed and charged around a stadium. From the stands 26,000 fans erupted in cheers—and then thunderous chants for their football team: “Yiyang must win!”Nearly two hours later, Yiyang had lost, 1-0, to their stronger opponents from Changsha, the capital of Hunan province. Yiyang’s players, their bright orange jerseys muddy and socks torn from the hard-fought match, could not hold back tears.
欢迎来到这场盛况，以及席卷中国各地的草根省级足球联赛所激荡的情感。“湘超（湖南联赛）比世界杯好看”，当地流传着这样一句玩笑话。技术水平——委婉地说——参差不齐，传球失误、射门打偏屡见不鲜，在益阳队这场比赛中，一次进球回放甚至耗时11分钟之久，令人煎熬。但这份激情是真实的，比围绕中国长期不济的国家队的热情更真实。
Welcome to the spectacle, and the emotion, of the grassroots provincial football leagues sweeping across China. “Xiangchao (the Hunan league) is better than the World Cup,” goes one local joke. The skills are—put politely—uneven, with lots of missed passes, fluffed shots and, in the Yiyang match, a goal review that took 11 excruciating minutes. But the passion is real, more so than that surrounding China’s perennially inept national team.
这种城市对抗的业余赛事始于2025年春季，起源于江苏，随后在约20个其他省份引发模仿热潮。官方主要将这些联赛视为经济催化剂。然而，它们最显著的影响却是社会层面的。在经济低迷的大背景下，它们给了人们一个欢呼的理由，伴随的投入与非理性，丝毫不亚于世界任何地方的体育迷。“这提振了我们的士气，”益阳队的一位赞助商说道。
The city-versus-city amateur competitions began only in spring 2025, starting in Jiangsu, and have inspired copycats in about 20 other provinces. Officials see the leagues chiefly as economic catalysts. Their most striking impact, though, has been social. Against the backdrop of a sluggish economy, they have given people something to cheer, and with all the devotion and irrationality of sports fans anywhere. “It’s been a morale booster for us,” says a sponsor of the Yiyang team.
开球前几小时，益阳体育场外的广场已是一派嘉年华般的热闹景象。摊位上售卖辣汤、臭豆腐、捣茶等当地美食。排队最长的是领取赠品的队伍，其中包括装湖南辣椒酱的罐头。超级球迷早早聚集，敲着大鼓、挥舞着超大旗帜、高声呐喊助威口号。他们性格随和，与对手球迷开玩笑，还给“茶馆”围上了一条球队围巾。啦啦队正在为中场表演热身；为了配合整个活动的家庭友好氛围，她们身穿及踝的中式戏曲风长袍。
A few hours before kick-off, the plaza outside the Yiyang stadium had a carnival-like atmosphere. Stalls sold spicy soup, stinky tofu, a mashed tea drink and other local delights. The biggest queues were for giveaways, including jars of Hunanese chilli relish. Superfans gathered early to bang on drums, wave oversized flags and belt out their chants. They were a good-natured bunch, joking with fans of the opposing side and wrapping Chaguan in a team scarf. Cheerleaders warmed up for their half-time performance; in keeping with the family atmosphere of the whole event, they were clad in ankle-length Chinese opera-style robes.
在体育场周边的街道上，中国房地产低迷的阴影清晰可见：餐馆关门歇业、烂尾楼林立、住宅空置。湖南联赛的一位商业合作伙伴表示，联赛的创办初衷之一是为了振兴经济活动。官方尝试过多种举措，从夜市到演唱会，但没有哪一项像足球这样奏效，他说。足球吸引了老少观众，以及外地游客。国内旅游因千篇一律、缺乏新意而备受诟病——各城市提供相似的步行街、相似的小商品、相似的虚拟现实体验——相比之下，体育比赛的戏剧性和不确定性颇具吸引力。
In the streets around the stadium, the penumbra of China’s property downturn is visible in closed restaurants, half-finished buildings and unoccupied flats. A business partner of the Hunan league says it was created in part to revive economic activity. Officials had tried several things, from night markets to concerts. Nothing worked as well as football, he says. It drew spectators, young and old, as well as out-of-towners. With domestic tourism bemoaned as homogeneous and predictable—cities offer similar pedestrian streets, similar trinkets, similar virtual-reality experiences—there is something to be said for the drama and uncertainty of sport.
湖南联赛首个赛季上演了“灰姑娘”故事：经济条件远不如长沙的永州队，一路披荆斩棘夺得了冠军。
The inaugural season of the Hunan league brought a Cinderella story when Yongzhou, much poorer than Changsha, clawed its way to the championship.
这些比赛也触动了人们的乡土自豪感。数十年的外出务工让许多中国人与家乡分离。如今随着生活富裕，人们正在寻找新的意义寄托。足球成为他们重新连接并表达地方身份认同的一种方式。“场上踢的是自家人，”便利店店员张先生说。尽管他在长沙工作多年，却始终无法让自己支持省会球队。“实话实说，长沙就像个大地主，占尽了优势。”
The matches also tap into a vein of local pride. Decades of migration for work have torn many Chinese from their hometowns. Now that they are richer, people are searching for new forms of meaning. Football is one way to reconnect with and express their local identity. “It’s your own family out there,” says Mr Zhang, a convenience-store clerk. Though he worked in Changsha for many years, he could never bring himself to support the capital. “Speaking frankly, Changsha is like a landlord. They have far too many advantages.”
来自益阳的网红周美美在社交媒体视频中强调湖南各城市间友好交流的价值。她说，益阳常被其他湖南人忽视，现在可以向到访的球迷展示其好客文化。但她也有竞争心。“我们都想赢，因为作为本地人，我们希望家乡争光，”她说。
In her social-media videos, Zhou Meimei, an influencer from Yiyang, emphasises the value of friendly exchanges between Hunan’s cities. Yiyang, often overlooked by other Hunanese, can show off its hospitable culture to visiting fans, she says. Yet she is competitive, too. “We all want to win because as locals we want our hometown to earn honour,” she says.
省级联赛或许有助于改善足球在中国的形象。在职业层面，中超联赛被视为腐败不堪，深陷假球丑闻。省级联赛则带有一种纯粹感。“这些比赛没有金钱利益，只有人们为赢球而拼搏，”一名在益阳现场观赛的球迷说。有人希望这些联赛的蓬勃发展能向上辐射至国家队，后者自2002年以来未曾闯入世界杯。但省级联赛介入球员成长的阶段太晚，无法为国家队输送人才。尽管如此，重燃的热情或许能吸引更多年轻人投身足球运动。
The provincial leagues may help football’s image in China. At the professional level, the China Super League is seen as hopelessly corrupt, marred by match-fixing scandals. The provincial leagues have a purity about them. “There’s no money in these games, just people struggling to win,” says one fan at the Yiyang match. Some hope the triumph of these leagues will radiate upwards to the national team, which has not reached a World Cup since 2002. But the provincial leagues come far too late in players’ development to feed into the national programme. Nevertheless, rekindled enthusiasm may entice more young people to play.
规则旨在确保省级联赛坚定地保持业余性和本地化。以湖南为例，规定每支球队场上必须始终至少有三名高中生。所有球员必须与所在城市有联系，例如拥有当地户口。政府也压低票价。在益阳，门票仅售9.9元人民币（约合1.50美元）；近9万人参与了购票抽签。当黄牛介入后，当局引入了人脸识别闸机，确保原始购票者无法转卖座位。
Rules are in place to keep the provincial leagues resolutely amateur and local. In Hunan, for example, each team must have at least three high-school students on the pitch at all times. All players must have ties to their city, such as a hukou (household registration). Governments also keep ticket prices down. In Yiyang, seats were just 9.9 yuan ($1.50); nearly 90,000 people had entered the ticket lottery. When scalpers muscled in, authorities introduced facial-recognition turnstiles, ensuring that original ticket recipients could not sell their seats.
尽管这些联赛充满草根气息，但大多是自上而下运作的：官员组织比赛、审核娱乐节目并管理商业合作。它们的魅力取决于这种管控保持轻柔。正如中国城市竞相招商引资一样，未来也可能开始把联赛排名当作绩效指标。排名垫底会对城市的组织能力造成负面影响，因此引进更强球员或增加训练投入的压力很可能会加大。
For all their grassroots feel, the leagues are mostly run from the top down: bureaucrats organise the matches, vet the entertainment and manage the commercial deals. Their charm depends on that hand staying light. Much as Chinese cities compete to attract investments, they may also start treating league standings as a performance metric. Languishing at the bottom of the table could reflect poorly on a city’s organisational abilities, so the pressure to lure better players or spend more on training is likely to grow.
资金开始流入地方联赛。在江苏，赞助商已包括喜力、可口可乐和阿迪达斯。相比之下，在益阳，主要赞助商之一是一家本地企业，生产用麻辣酱料腌制的小包装干鱼。球迷们排队品尝麻辣小鱼干样品，并与这位作为本地创业典范的CEO合影留念。目前，小鱼们正蓬勃发展。但大鱼们已在周围游弋。■
Money is starting to wend its way into the local leagues. In Jiangsu, sponsors now include Heineken, Coca-Cola and Adidas. In Yiyang, by contrast, one of the main sponsors was a hometown producer of packets of little dried fish seasoned in a fiery sauce. Fans queued for samples of the spicy minnows and for photos with the CEO, a local success story. For now, the small fry are thriving. But the big fish are circling. ■