On the afternoon of the 21st, Xinjiang Tianshan Snow Leopard Club, which ranked 17th in the Central League last season, released an announcement through official channels, saying that the club is considering withdrawing from the 2023 season of the professional league. I'm afraid that this time, the "immortal bird" of the Central League really have to say goodbye.
The CFA is currently reviewing the admission of clubs at all levels, and the fact that the Xinjiang team has expressed a desire to quit at this time may also signal that the wave of club dissolutions has finally begun.
Image source: IC
Relegation after relegation after "lucky break".
New rules allow Xinjiang team to consider quitting
The Xinjiang team was formerly known as Hubei Huakel FC, which was established at the end of 2013 when the club's place of registration was moved from Hubei to Xinjiang. The team also changed its name to Xinjiang Dabancheng Nahuan (2014-2015), and then to Xinjiang Sports Lottery (2016-2017). Since 2018, the Xinjiang team has been renamed "Xinjiang Tianshan Snow Leopard", which is still in use today.
Since 2018, Xinjiang has become a "mixed team" in the Chinese League A. In the 2018 season, the team was in the bottom one; in the 2019 season, it was in the bottom four; in the 2020 season, it was in the bottom one. In the 2021 season, the team finished in the bottom half of the league. ; 2022 season, bottom 2. In the past five years, Xinjiang has been relegated four times, but due to the club's disbandment in successive years, Xinjiang has always been "lucky to replenish".
Theoretically, after Wuhan Changjiang announced its dissolution, Xinjiang saw the hope of "staying in the league" this year. As long as another Central League One team quits, Xinjiang will be able to stay in the competition for the third year in a row.
However, the CFA cut off Xinjiang's supplemental hopes with a new rule. This new rule reads, "If the supplemental grade season is relegated again, the team will lose its supplemental status altogether."
Fans joked that this new rule is "anti-dead bird clause", this new rule is completely in line with the situation of the Xinjiang team. In a way, can even say, this "anti-dead bird clause" is the last straw to overwhelm the Xinjiang team, I'm afraid that the Chinese A game "immortal bird" on this farewell.
Yesterday, Xinjiang team in the announcement clearly wrote: "The Chinese Football Association, China Football League preparatory group announced the 2023 professional league qualification supplement principles, directly canceled the Xinjiang Tianshan Snow Leopard supplement China A qualification ......"
Neutral names used to be well received
It almost disbanded last summer.
At the end of 2020, then CFA president Chen Xuyuan praised Xinjiang by name when the CFA enforced a neutral name policy.
At that time, many clubs changed their neutral names in a perfunctory manner, and the name "Tianshan Snow Leopard", which had been used for several years, was particularly special.
At the time, Chen Xuyuan said, "I believe that our soccer has a culture, and the Tianshan Snow Leopard is very much a part of Xinjiang's culture."
However, the query found that Xinjiang Tianshan Snow Leopard Club has a subsidiary company, 100% shareholding, named "Xinjiang Tianshan Snow Leopard Business Hotel Co.
From a certain point of view, the Xinjiang team is the promotional team of this business hotel. The CFA asked Xinjiang to cut ties with the hotel. In the end, the club sold all of its shares in the hotel and kept the neutral name "Tianshan Snow Leopards".
The parent company of Team Xinjiang is Urumqi Juntai Real Estate Co. Ltd, which holds 98% of the shares. In recent years, due to business issues, the Jun Tai Group has provided very limited financial support to the Xinjiang team.
After the 2021 season's "relegation", Juntai is reportedly considering withdrawing from the professional league in favor of youth training. Finally, Xinjiang participated in the Central League last season through a pay cut for all staff, but there was news of a disbandment in the summer.
Due to wage arrears and other issues, Xinjiang suffered a ban on new recruits and at one point couldn't even field a full roster.
After several mediations, Xinjiang resolved the issue and finished the last season successfully, but were relegated two rounds early and ended up in the bottom two of the Central League.
The hard part is the entry this year
Multiple teams in Division III are in trouble.
Xinjiang was the first club to announce its exit from this year's league access when it began (Wuhan Changjiang had already opted out when they were relegated). With the start of access, many clubs are bound to get stuck at the access gates of the Chinese Super League, the Chinese First Division and the Chinese Second Division.
On February 15, the CFA issued a notice on adjusting some of the access conditions for clubs, making some adjustments to the access conditions for third-tier clubs for the new season and clarifying that the time for submission of access materials will be from February 15, 2023 to March 5, 2023.
According to the access notice, clubs should submit their access materials through the access system from February 15, 2023 to March 5, 2023, after which they will not be accepted.
By calculation, a week has passed since the submission of the access material, but only a handful of clubs have submitted their access material.
In addition to the reasons for players' salary arrears, many clubs fail to meet the hard targets of 6 tier ladder in the Chinese Super League, 5 tier ladder in the Chinese First Division and 4 tier ladder in the Chinese Second Division.
Because there are so many unknown possibilities in the league, some clubs may be able to compensate or even need to prepare two versions of access materials. For the clubs involved, uncertainty about which division to participate in means that team signings and preparations cannot be implemented.
Originally, the transfer window for this year's league was set to open on January 16th, then postponed to February 1st, and later to February 20th.
It was only last night that the CFA announced that the transfer window for the Chinese Super League would open on February 22nd and close on April 7th. If all goes well, the Chinese Super League is expected to open in mid-April.
