Although the anti-corruption and anti-mafia storm in domestic soccer continues and many senior managers of soccer associations are lagging behind, the Chinese Super League has not been affected much. According to the latest news, the Football Association has set the opening date for the 2023 season of the Chinese Super League, which will officially open on the 15th of next month.
As we all know, under the strong advocacy of former Football Association chairman Chen Xuyuan, the Chinese Super League was expanded by two teams last season, from 16 to 18 teams, and the number of matches in the whole season was increased from 30 to 34 rounds.
However, in recent years, Chen Xuyuan's expansion of the Chinese Super League to 18 teams has not yielded good results amidst the league's extreme downturn. The national soccer team performed worse than before in the world preliminaries, and the quality of the league began to plummet. With revenues plummeting, many clubs have experienced varying degrees of wage arrears, and some of them are likely to announce their dissolution this year.
As a result, the CFA has decided to return to the original 16 teams for the 2023 season of the Chinese Super League. In other words, two teams will miss the new season of the Chinese Super League. Judging from the first batch of Chinese Super League clubs announced by the CFA recently, two clubs are likely to be "shot", namely Shenzhen and Guangzhou from Guangdong.
As early as the end of last year, the Shenzhen team and the city of Guangzhou, "Thunderbolt". In recent years, the Shenzhen team has accumulated debt of 3.5 billion yuan. I am afraid that no enterprise can fill such a large debt hole, especially in today's Chinese soccer environment. This is basically an "impossible task".
In addition, the Shenzhen team is also the domestic anti-corruption storm "hardest hit". Ding Yong, Zhang Lu and other club managers and first-line players were taken away for investigation, which indicates that the dissolution of the Shenzhen team is only a matter of time.
Although Guangzhou's situation is not as bad as Shenzhen's, the club's share reform has not been progressing and has basically been declared a failure. Under these circumstances, the club's search for funding has become a challenge and disbandment seems inevitable.
However, Shenzhen and Guangzhou are still in regular training, so no final conclusion can be drawn on whether they will be disbanded this year. But the Football Association's decision to narrow down the number of Super League teams to 16 for the new season seems to hint at the fate of Shenzhen and Guangzhou's disbandment.
The downsizing of the Chinese Super League has also once again slapped former Football Association (FA) chairman Chen Xuyuan in the face. During Chen Xuyuan's time at the helm of the federation, there were many brilliant policies and theories that violated the laws of soccer development in China. The "neutral name" policy made many companies lose interest in investing in soccer, and the theory of "public welfare soccer" became a laughing stock for fans.
The downsizing of the Chinese Super League has also proved that Chen Xuyuan's decision to make quick successes has been a complete failure, and that not following the normal laws of soccer development can only end in failure.
Although the number of Chinese Super League (CSL) teams has been reduced to 16, the league is still struggling to open properly. Currently, the deadline set by the FA for clubs to submit information on their eligibility has passed, but there are still several clubs that are unable to submit information. In order for the league to open normally, the FA can only extend the deadline for submitting information again.
Judging from the current situation, the new season of the Chinese Super League will be more difficult than before. Here, we also hope that the clubs can work together to help the league tide over the difficulties and preserve our league so that there is hope for the future of Chinese soccer, right?
