For reasons well known to all, the Chinese Super League continued to decline last season, with many clubs unable to make ends meet, and the problem of salary arrears left over from the past few years has been unresolved.
Serious salary arrears have directly affected the team's league performance, with last season's Hebei being the most typical example. Due to the lack of progress in the club's shareholding reform, Hebei FC has run out of operating capital.
In this case, all the players who could leave the Hebei team left the team, leaving a group of veterans and young players from the ladder team who had nowhere else to go. The league results of such a Hebei team are predictable.
Hebei were relegated to the Central League 7 rounds ahead of schedule after a record-breaking losing streak in the Super League and a points deduction from the Football Association. They ended last season with a final league tally of minus three points, which put Hebei on a new record in the history of the Chinese Super League.
Only seven years ago, Hebei's predecessor Hebei Huaxia Happiness was the richest club in the Chinese Super League. Back then, they invested billions in signings, making local players such as Zhang Chengdong, Zhao Mingjian and Ren Hang the "Mr. Billion Dollar Man" of the Chinese Super League.
It has been proved that gold dollar soccer can only bring a short-lived false prosperity to Chinese Super League clubs. Once the financial chain is broken, the team's performance will drop like a roller coaster. The situation of Hebei team in the past two years is enough to illustrate all this. Judging from the current situation, it is only a matter of time before Hebei team announces its dissolution.
However, the recent introduction of a new policy by the Football Association let the Hebei team see the hope of "back from the dead". Recently, many media revealed that the Football Association will be in the new season to liberalize the domestic professional soccer clubs relocation restrictions. At present, there are many unsustainable clubs have moved to other cities with better economic conditions.
A Shenzhen soccer reporter also recently posted a message on social media that it's true that a Chinese club recently wanted to move to Shenzhen, more than one, and a Chinese Super League relegation horse, and they contacted the Shenzhen Sports Bureau.
As we all know, there were three relegated teams in the Chinese Super League last season, namely Wuhan Changjiang, Guangzhou and Hebei. Wuhan Changjiang officially announced its dissolution last month and it is unlikely to go back on its word. Guangzhou is located in Guangzhou, only a wall away from Shenzhen, and moving to Shenzhen has no practical significance.
Therefore, this Chinese Super League relegation team that is expected to move to Shenzhen must be Hebei. Compared to the Shenzhen team, the overall strength of Hebei's local players is much stronger than that of the Shenzhen team if the foreign aid factor is not taken into account.
In addition, there are no companies or local authorities that can help fill the big hole of Shenzhen club's huge $3.5 billion debt. As a result, they are now in a much more dangerous situation than Hebei. In other words, the possibility of the Shenzhen team disbanding is much greater than the Hebei team.
Therefore, if Hebei moves to Shenzhen, it is obviously much easier to restart their participation in the Chinese First Division than to spend a lot of money to save the Shenzhen team. Of course, it's up to the Shenzhen Sports Bureau to ultimately make the choice between keeping a Chinese Super League team for Shenzhen or bringing in a Chinese Super League team to support the facade instead.
