Breaking news in Chinese soccer came out on June 19, when a report about the Chinese Super League appeared in the domestic media, Soccer News. The report pointed out that the Chinese Super League clubs still have the problem of unpaid wages this season, and the amount of sponsorship and investment has dropped significantly, which has triggered a certain amount of controversy.
As we all know, the Chinese Super League has suffered from wage arrears in the last two seasons due to the bursting of the gold dollar soccer bubble, as well as the ongoing competition system, and the backlash against the neutral name policy. According to previous media reports, all teams except Shanghai Port had problems with wage arrears last season, especially Shenzhen and Hebei, where the problem of wage arrears was particularly prominent. Hebei even had players pulling banners for wages. It can be said that this situation has continuously damaged the image of the Chinese Super League.
In order to reverse this situation, the FA asked all teams to completely resolve the historical wage arrears at the beginning of the season, otherwise they would not be able to pass the admission and Guangzhou City would be forced to disband due to their inability to resolve the wage arrears. However, now that 12 rounds of the Chinese Super League have passed, the issue of wage arrears has reoccurred. In this regard, Football Daily wrote: "At present, the funds of the Chinese Super League clubs are still tight, and the Shenzhen soccer team has not paid wages for several months. Shandong Taishan, Henan and Cangzhou are all facing equity reform problems. Beijing Guoan, Qingdao Hainiu, Dalian Ren, Meizhou Hakka and other clubs are in a similar situation."
According to a report by Football Daily, despite the fact that the Chinese Super League passed all 16 teams' applications for admission at the start of the season, however, half of the teams are now facing a struggle for survival. Although the outlet did not reveal details, the situation has sparked widespread controversy, with many fans voicing their displeasure.
Some fans said, "In the same sentence, when clubs are fed, players can be fed, which will drive the popularity of the league and the mass experience. There's no use calling more people to plow the land if the clubs aren't fed. Clubs are not profitable. Sooner or later, they will default on wages by relying solely on blood transfusions from the parent company! Some fans say, "The Chinese Super League is a big joke. In the past, people couldn't spend more money, but now they're too poor to open the pot. Such a league is meaningless!"
Of course, there are also fans who express their views like this, "If companies no longer enjoy naming rights, the Chinese Super League will never be able to recover because soccer is not a charity or public service, and at least in the current situation, the Chinese Super League is not allowed to use a neutral name!" "Investor money doesn't fall from the sky and if an industry can't make a profit for people then it can't achieve growth. The bottom line is that companies lose interest in investing in soccer, and consequently lose the means to conduct advertising campaigns!""
