China Super League (soccer league)
The beacons are still burning, but underneath the darkness, the specter of players' unpaid wages still lingers. The microblogging voices of players such as Rong Hao and Yin Hongbo, like thunder, have stirred up a wide range of ripples in the industry and society. However, this is only the tip of the iceberg, the Chinese Super League salary arrears problem has actually spread into a disease, if you do not take immediate and decisive measures, this potential time bomb once detonated, the adverse impact, will be incalculable.
Exactly, how did this mess form? And how should it be untangled?
In 2021, Chinese Super League (CSL) clubs faced unprecedented difficulties, with a record number of cases submitted to the CFA Adjudication Committee (hereinafter referred to as the Adjudication Committee), the highest body of the Chinese Football Association (CFA) dealing with labor disputes. In the past decade, Chinese soccer has been in a money-burning mode, coupled with a relatively strict access mechanism, and disputes over unpaid wages at the Chinese Super League level have not been common.
However, the epidemic and salary restrictions have led to the re-signing of all players' labor contracts and a large number of disputes have ensued. From the past when lawsuits were filed on an individual basis, to nowadays when the whole club is the defendant, class action lawsuits by players have become the norm. Faced with cases involving huge amounts of money and complex materials, as well as pleadings filed by the Central League and Central B, the workload of the adjudication committee has increased dramatically.
Against this background, the Adjudication Board has adopted the principles of categorization and prioritization, prioritizing the cases of players who wish to be free and transfer early to find a team due to unpaid wages, and giving a judgment on the status of the player first to ensure that the player can find his next home in a timely manner, and placing a secondary importance on when the disputes over unpaid wages will be resolved.
The cases of players who do not want to end their contracts and are still under contract but are recovering unpaid wages are temporarily pending without judgment. In addition, a considerable number of cases in which the clubs have forced layoffs, the players have difficulties in finding a next home, and they want to continue to fulfill their contracts or receive due compensation have also not been given a final judgment. As to when the results will be available, according to the rules of the Adjudication Board, as long as they are given within six months after the commencement of the procedure, they are in compliance with the rules.
However, even international players like Rong Hao and Yin Hongbo are under pressure to support their families due to unpaid wages. Many players at the bottom of the ladder are even more victimized and are under tremendous pressure to repay their debts. Some players don't even know if they can keep their houses before the outcome of the ruling comes out, or if their houses will be repossessed by the bank before they can recover their unpaid wages.
Rong Hao revealed that former TEDA boss Strikers got their unpaid wages due to their appeal to FIFA. This is not an isolated case, the Chinese Super League this year, there are a lot of foreign aid and coaches leave, most of them are amicable parting, unless the amount of compensation is huge, or generally can be successfully settled.
Clubs have different ways of dealing with the foreign aid issue, and as long as the clubs still want to bring in foreign aid, or are not thinking of quitting this season, they have to fill in the gaps of unpaid wages and foreign coaches' salaries. But the money for Chinese players can be put on hold, why is that?
The reason is very simple, in addition to foreign aid and foreign coach can appeal to FIFA, more importantly, FIFA holds a lethal weapon in its hands, once the clubs do not cooperate to maintain the integrity of the contract, it can be in the transfer to restrict the defaulting clubs, do not issue a license to introduce foreign aid, so that the channel to replace foreign aid is blocked, and the Chinese Football Association does not dare to violate the ban of the FIFA, in the domestic transfer market will also be Restrictions are carried out.
Because of this, the Zimmen Tigers will owe Strikers money to pay back, the summer window period to have Jin Yangyang and others to join, otherwise, the reinforcement channel blocked, the road to relegation will be even more difficult.
The reason why Chinese players' money is not eagerly repaid by the clubs is that, apart from the fact that Chinese players cannot appeal to FIFA, more importantly, the strength of the Chinese players themselves, as well as their indispensability and irreplaceability, are far less than that of the foreign aiders. A few years ago, when the transfer market burned the most money, some clubs signed a lot of sky-high contracts, sober investors are unable and unwilling to continue to pay the bill, especially after some investors retreat, the rest of the plate no one to take over, signed the contract has become a hot potato.
Many of the cases before the Adjudication Committee during the year were based on very clear grounds that there was a separate breach of contract and that the club should be compensated, but in many cases, the Adjudication Committee was unable to adjudicate.
Why? The reason is very simple. As there are several clubs and the arrears of wages are extensive, it is impossible to adjudicate on only one case but not the others. The Adjudication Board has also communicated with the clubs with wage arrears, and many of them have indicated that they will not rule out the possibility of quitting once they are adjudicated to be required to make full compensation for their wage arrears. If they are unable to repay, the only option is to go into bankruptcy and liquidation, then some of the existing players, who will face unemployment, may be in a worse situation.
The league is in progress, and if an accident occurs at this time, and if a team withdraws as a result, it will have a negative impact on the integrity of the league, the long-term interests of most players, the interests of the league's sponsors, and the overall image of the Chinese professional league.
It can be said that any judgment involves one hair and affects the whole body, therefore, many cases, in addition to the complaints of Rong Hao and Zheng Kaimu, which have not been followed up for more than two months, as well as the complaints of some domestic coaches and players, have likewise sunk without a trace.
The contract is reality, arrears of wages is also reality, shortage of funds, can not continue to pay the high salary is also reality. Players to defend their rights and interests is right, but the club can not get so much money to pay is also a reality, the contradiction, how to solve?
According to the FIFA 2021 Regulations on Player Status and Transfers, the contract section is described as "firmly upholding the integrity of the contract, a valid contract can only be terminated in two ways, the first is the expiry of the contract, and the second is the termination of the contract after consultation between the two parties with the consent of both parties." From the player's point of view, the contract can be terminated with just cause (but must pay the corresponding financial compensation), and the player contract has a protection period, the player and the club, no matter which party, in the protection period to terminate the contract for a non-legitimate reason, will be subject to the corresponding financial and athletic double punishment.
But this was all in the days when the soccer market was great, the rules were perfect, and investors were rushing into the soccer world, and we all took our contracts very seriously. For many Chinese Super League clubs nowadays, nothing is more important than staying alive, and reputation, morality and the spirit of contract are all put aside for the time being.
At the beginning of the year, a number of teams directly told the players to terminate their contracts without any communication, according to the labor contract law (hereinafter referred to as the contract law), according to the player's length of service in the club, every year will be given a month's salary compensation, less than six months according to six months. That is to say a player who has played for the club for two years and still has three years of contract left to complete, can only get his two months salary compensation is necessary to leave. For the player's complaint that the direct termination of the contract is unreasonable, the club believes that the player has been given free agency, which is the maximum compensation.
But according to this logic, all contracts can actually be voided at any time, as long as the club gives the player free agency by the way the annual salary is converted into months of salary compensation can be. But obviously, the adjudication committee does not recognize such a theory, after all, the CFA all have to comply with FIFA's work standards, professional players' contracts should comply with the labor law (because the labor law is the supreme law) but can not be copied in accordance with the model of the contract law (because the labor law is a general sense of the law, in a specific field of work to be vulnerable to special laws, the soccer circle that is, the special field).
Soccer players are not like workers in the general sense, ordinary workers do not have a special window to find a job, soccer players in the scope of the search for work and channels and time have too many special characteristics, therefore, if all the copy of the contract law to judge the contract of the Chinese players, it is obviously contrary to FIFA's standards of work. Although the Chinese players can not appeal to FIFA, but if the black and white on the judgment is really only in accordance with the general sense of the contract law and completely disregard the special characteristics of the work of the judgment, once the exposure of the adjudication committee will become the laughing stock of the entire world soccer world.
The adjudication committee and the clubs also disagree to varying degrees on termination and liquidated damages, and it is not clear who can convince whom, so many cases are then delayed indefinitely without a final judgment being given.
However, the players were not aware of all this. Therefore, many of them openly demanded wages on the Internet and denounced the inaction of the Adjudication Board, but the matter was not as simple as the players thought. When we understand all this, we will realize that this is not something that can be solved by the Adjudication Board alone, and in order to prevent more similar incidents from happening in the future, a better mechanism and rules are needed.
So, will the unpaid wages be left unresolved? Perhaps for the sake of livelihood and rice bowl, active players will bear the humiliation, perhaps the two sides reached a deferred discount payment agreement, the matter will be resolved. But for those whose income is not high, and has retired and is owed wages for the players, who will do justice? Obviously, can only rely on the CFA, the condition is that they are willing to assume this responsibility.
This time, the large salary arrears, not only to solve some controversial contract issues, but more importantly, to remove some of the risks, so that the salary back to rationality, so that the future will not happen similar incidents, damage the image of Chinese soccer.
In fact, a large part of the players were forgotten, including former players of Liaozhu, Qianzhao, and Beyond clubs, who had paid, but their salaries and hard-earned money had been owed, and with the disappearance of the clubs, this group of players became the victims, the District Court refused to accept the petition on the grounds that there was an agreement in the contract that disputes could only be resorted to the working associations; and the CFA said that the target of the lawsuit was no longer a working member, and that it lacked the The CFA said that the subject of the lawsuit was no longer a working member and lacked the power to enforce the law and could not do justice. Therefore, they have no way to complain.
Obviously, in terms of the rules of work, there are flaws, and the cost of default by clubs is so low that some investors come in and out "at will", and after accomplishing their own purposes of acquiring land, doing advertisements or other commercial purposes, they leave behind a trail of chicken feathers and run away. Now, many clubs are carrying out shareholding reforms, in addition to sharing the pressure of investment, there is also the supervision of investors.
As a working association, CFA should make adjustments to its entry qualifications and default costs to minimize the continued unchecked generation of irrational investments that lead to hasty exits and then bring significant losses to practitioners who are not at fault for their work, or even to the work as a whole.
In view of the current situation, the CFA adjudication committee should negotiate with the clubs and players, so that the two sides calmly communicate, and can be resolved peacefully the best; from the players' point of view, should also be appropriate to understand the clubs, looking at the overall situation, I believe that most of the disputes can be resolved.
