On April 13, 2023, the transfer window for players in the Chinese Super League (CSL) closed, waiting for the final "verdict" on Shenzhen's Dai Weijun ended in a "shutout".
Neither the player himself nor the Chinese Super League team that intentionally brought him in waited for any turnaround. According to the Shenzhen media, "at the last minute, the investors voted it down".
In the morning of the same day, the Shenzhen team announced the team's list for the first half of the 2023 Chinese Super League schedule, and Dai Weijun, who hasn't trained with the team since the start of winter training, is still at the top of the list. This means that Dai Weijun will only be able to play in the Chinese Super League as a Shenzhen player for at least half of this year's season.
Although deeply for Dai Weijun enrollment, but from the player and agent's attitude, "settlement of salary arrears" is the only condition to return to the team.
Once the two sides can not reach an agreement on this matter, is regarded as the next few years of the national football team "midfield commander" Dai Weijun may fall into at least half a year without football.
Behind the seemingly dusty result, however, are a bunch of question marks left behind after Dai Weijun failed in his quest for a transfer.
Chinese soccer, to whom to ask for "free agency"?
When Dai Weijun moved to Shenzhen, his salary was not high, even one-tenth of the team's highest-paid local player. However, his salary has increased every year and he is near the top of his contract year.
His contract with Shenzhen initially expired at the end of 2023, but due to longstanding salary arrears, he himself asked the club to give up 10 months of his salary in exchange for his freedom. In this way, Dai Weijun stayed with Shenzhen for three years, in fact, one year he worked for nothing.
But Shenzhen demanded to receive a transfer fee of 20 million yuan before they were willing to release the player. There are also rumors that the figure is 10 million yuan, as 10 million yuan would just about even out Dai Weijun's salary arrears and the transfer fee Shenzhen owed the Wolves when they brought in the player.
Sun Xiaotian, the sports director in charge of Shanghai Shenhua's signings, suggested that the addition of Dai Weijun could offset Wang Yongper's transfer fee (which had not yet been settled for Wang's transfer from Shenhua to Shenzhen).
But Shamrocks thought that Dai Weijun's transfer and Wang Yongpei's transfer were two different things, and Shamrocks, still dragging their feet on the Wolves' transfer fee, didn't agree to the plan.
After several negotiations, Shanghai Shenhua showed sincerity and was willing to pay a transfer fee to bring in Dai Weijun. The executives of SZFC, who were short of money, also intended to sell the player. However, this idea was categorically rejected by Guo Yingcheng, the owner of Shenzhen Caesar Group, so the future direction of Dai Weijun continues to hang in the balance.
Interestingly, the matter wasn't just on the table in 2023; back in 2022, Dai Weijun filed for arbitration with the FA over unpaid wages.
At the time, the FA Arbitration Committee said, "Dai Weijun owed his salary between two and three months, less than three months, and the amount is not very large. The Shenzhen team is not maliciously defaulting."
Dai Weijun had no choice but to raise the issue of salary arrears with FIFA, which was eventually withdrawn by FIFA on the grounds that "the players and the team are under the management of the Chinese Football Association".
Thereafter, Dai Weijun submitted the matter to the Shenzhen International Arbitration Court. In the end, Dai Weijun won the case. According to the requirements of the award, Shenzhen was required to pay the outstanding amount to Dai Weijun within 10 days.
Since a player's free-agency arbitration must be accepted by the CFA, Dai Weijun's right to defend himself is supported by the law, but that doesn't mean he'll get his free agency immediately.
However, Dai Weijun's free agency was not supported by the CFA until the last day of the winter transfer window of the Chinese Super League, because according to the CFA's regulations, Dai Weijun's situation was called "disputed salary", so he would not be given free agency.
The deeper logic of the FA is probably that if they agree to restore Dai Weijun's freedom, then based on the current salary arrears of the Chinese Super League clubs, 80% of the Super League are free agents and the whole league is a debt collector.
That's how Dai Weijun was defeated. Shenzhen says less than three months of wages are owed, some are late, some will be paid back, some will be paid, some will be called bonuses or subsidies. Not the agreed wages anyway.
Admittedly, all this is pure nonsense, a kind of wordplay or quick-wittedness.
Since then, the Shenzhen team, which is deep in various crises, has been coached by Chen Tao, a former international player, who has taken over the coaching of the team. He made it clear that he wanted Dai Weijun to come back and help the team finish the relegation task. However, the latter did not agree to return enough and started a pattern of watching football everywhere.
After a six-game losing streak, Shenzhen resigned of their own accord and the team now sits at the bottom of the league.
Ding Yong, lulled to death
Ding Yong, a Chinese Super League manager and former general manager of Shenzhen and Tianjin Tianhai clubs, was formally arrested in August 2023 by the procuratorial authorities.
As early as the end of 2010, when Anhui Jufang transferred to Tianjin Runyu Long, Ding Yong, who was responsible for the transfer negotiations, claimed that the investor behind Runyu Long was a Fortune 500 company, but in fact, Runyu Long was a skin company.
Then he kept dragging out the team's transfer fee and the players' salaries. Six months later, he transferred the club to Shenyang Shenbei and made a fortune from the inside out.
Later, Ding Yong went to Tianjin Quanjian and signed Wei Zhen's autograph fee in advance. The transfer fee was not refunded and the contracts signed with Modeste and Paulo Sousa left a big hole.
When Ding Yong was with Shenzhen, he was crazy about bringing in internal and external reinforcements in the transfer market, but many players left the team after joining for only a short time, wasting a lot of transfer fees and liquidated damages.
Roughly speaking, Ding Yong's only documented waste of funds during his time in Shenzhen was at least around 500 million yuan, of which there is clearly a huge suspicion of illegality.
In addition, Shenzhen rose from the dead, through the access to the Chinese Super League this season, there are too many cats.
In addition to Kadai Weijun's free transfer, Shenzhen's smarter maneuver was to send out a windfall when the Dai Weijun storm was abating, "Ligue 2 club Sochaux sent Shenzhen a letter inviting Dai Weijun for a trial." However, by the time this news was released, European transfers were essentially over.
The fact is that Sochaux has a Chinese capital background. The Chinese investors made a fake deal with Shenzhen, invited Dai Weijun to France for a spin, then signed him, raised Dai Weijun's social status, gave a transfer contract to the right hand on the left hand, then resold him to a big-headed Chinese club in the summer transfer window.
It's nothing new that the Chinese have a well-established industrial chain overseas.
Dai Weijun, half a year without football, until June 28, 2023, Shanghai Shenhua officially announced that he joined the team, he and deeply entangled with the departure of the storm before the dust settled.
Looking back on this farce, when Dai Weijun half a year "no football", the outside world's first reaction is shock and regret.
The age of 23 is the most dynamic and critical period of growth for soccer players. During this period, there are six months without systematic high-intensity matches, and the impact on the player cannot be overstated.
In the past six months, Dai Weijun has become a popular international player without a ball, a loss for both. This is not a mockery of the 20 years of Chinese soccer specialization, nor is it sad for Dai Weijun and Chinese soccer.
