With next week's
China Super League (soccer league)
As the league season is about to kick off, there have been a lot of unexpected changes to one of the participating teams. Recently, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) suddenly announced that Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic Club (hereinafter referred to as "Chongqing Team"), which was expected to debut in the new season, had been stripped of its registration status due to its long-term failure to solve the problem of unpaid wages. Meanwhile, Dalian People Professional Football Club (hereinafter referred to as "Dalian People"), which had been relegated to the Central League, was lucky to be awarded the registration status for the new season.
China Super League (soccer league)
The admission ticket.
(go ahead and do it) without hesitating
China Super League (soccer league)
The team lineup looks unchanged, but the change is enough to reflect the deep-seated problems of the Chinese professional soccer league.
Firstly, the FA's handling of the issue of unpaid wages appears to be "inaction". The Chongqing team failed to meet the FA's admission criteria because it failed to solve the problem of salary arrears for a long period of time. Although the team has made it clear that it is willing to reduce its salary, the club is still unable to do anything about it.
After the withdrawal of the Chongqing team, the players' road to collect wages is even more difficult. According to the provisions of the sports law, the soccer industry has a certain degree of autonomy, the players need to be arbitrated in the industry first. However, due to the Football Association has canceled the registration qualification of Chongqing team, the club has actually been separated from the jurisdiction of the Football Association, the formation of a "no one asked" vacuum. Players will face greater difficulties than in other industries if they want to take the judicial route. Previously, including the national football team captain Wu Xi, including many Jiangsu team players also suffered a similar salary difficulties.
On the other hand, although the "resurrection" of the Dalian People's team is gratifying, the pressure on its survival is still enormous, which has almost become the epitome of the clubs in China's professional soccer league. The Football Association (FA) is implementing a share reform program for clubs, hoping to alleviate the pressure and risk of team operations through diversified investment. However, clubs such as Shandong Taishan and Henan, which have already implemented the share reform, have successfully absorbed more investment based on their good operating conditions before the share reform. More clubs are burdened with heavy debts to carry out share reform, which makes other investors deterred.
The poor operating conditions of clubs in general, on the one hand, stems from the "inherent deficiencies" of Chinese professional soccer: most teams rely on the "blood transfusion" of their parent companies for funding, and their own blood-supply capacity is weak. When the parent company fails to operate well, the clubs often fall into difficulties. On the other hand, the management and business development ability of the Chinese professional league is weak, especially the tournament system has led to a reduction in fixtures and a decline in attendance, and the policy of neutral names for clubs introduced by the Football Association has added to the problem, which has greatly reduced the benefits of intangible advertisements.
As the administrators of Chinese soccer, both the Chinese Football Association and the Chinese Super League (CSL), there is an urgent need to enhance the ability to protect. Not only to protect the athletes' labor income, to support them in dealing with the problem of unpaid wages, but also to protect the reasonable interests of the clubs, in the development of the schedule, sponsorship dividends and business development and other aspects to provide more support. To have a sense of community of interest, as a "participant" rather than a "manager" in the posture.
Chongqing's "fall" and Dalian's "rebirth".
China Super League (soccer league)
The number of teams seems to be unchanged, but this is not a simple addition or subtraction. In fact, Chinese professional soccer is facing a crisis of "attrition". It's not just Chongqing, with its long history and one of the hottest soccer markets in China, that's disappearing, but other clubs may suffer a similar fate. The CFA needs to respond quickly to help soccer investors and the external market regain confidence, or at least try to ease their anxieties.
