On March 29th, as night fell, a shocking news hit the soccer world at 6:00 pm Beijing time - the Chinese Super League powerhouse Guangzhou City announced the suspension of all operational activities, a move that was tantamount to announcing the team's quiet exit from the stage of China's top soccer league. The Football Association (FA) then released the entry list for the third tier league, and Guangzhou City's name did not appear on it. Faced with enormous pressure to operate, the team, which carried the honor of Guangzhou, had to accept the reality of bidding farewell to the professional league, and expect the players and staff to quickly find a new home. It is worth mentioning that Guangzhou City is the fifth Chinese Super League team to be dissolved in the past three years, following Tianjin Tianhai, Jiangsu, Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic and Wuhan Changjiang.
Looking back at Chen Xuyuan's three and a half years as chairman of the Football Association, a number of clubs such as Tianjin Tianhai, Jiangsu, Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic, Wuhan Changjiang and Guangzhou City have fallen one after another. These clubs have dropped out of the professional league due to poor management and the complexity of China's soccer environment. At a time when money-based soccer is prevalent, it is believed that clubs will take every game seriously if they can make a profit; however, if they are continuously losing money, it is inevitable that the downturn of Chinese soccer will trigger a panic for teams to quit.
Over the past 20 years, Chinese soccer has continued to decline, with the gap between it and Asian soccer powerhouses such as Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia becoming more and more apparent. Although Guangzhou Evergrande has won the AFC Champions League trophy twice, the introduction of the naturalization policy has thrown Chinese soccer into disarray. Today, Guangzhou has been reduced to a first division team. Can the overall level of Chinese soccer be improved by these two trophies? The answer is obviously no. If we want to achieve sustainable development, Chinese soccer must start from school soccer and youth soccer, and strengthen the youth training system. Judging from the performance of the U20 national soccer team, China does not lack athletes who are passionate about soccer, but what it lacks is a good environment for growth.
Chinese soccer is facing an unprecedented crisis. Since November 2022, the anti-triad operation in soccer has escalated again. Li Tie's arrest was just the tip of the iceberg, followed by the arrests of FA executives Liu Yi, Chen Yongliang, Chen Xuyuan, Wang Xiaoping, and Huang Song.On March 29, former FA vice-chairman Yu Hongchen was captured, and the former general manager of the Chinese Super League Company, Dong Zheng, announced that he was joining the list of investigators, and Guangzhou City announced that it had been disbanded. According to statistics, eight heavyweights in the soccer world have been arrested so far. They once held important positions in Chinese soccer but were corrupted by corruption and their future fate is in doubt.
In addition to the Football Association, the general manager of the Shenzhen team, Ding Yong, has been out of office for nearly three months. According to domestic media reports, Ding Yong is suspected of bribing Chen Xuyuan and Liu Yi 50 million yuan. At present, there is sufficient evidence pointing to Ding Yong, he may be like Chen Xuyuan, facing a long prison sentence. Why is the truth only revealed today?
Next, the investigation team will review the referees, and the Chinese Super League match-fixing case is also under intense investigation. If referees are not involved, I am afraid no one will believe it. Who will be the first referee to be investigated? In addition, the soccer anti-triad case and the Chinese Super League match-fixing case are still far from over. Chen Xuyuan and Yu Hongchen may not be the highest-ranking soccer officials involved, and there may be more powerful forces behind the scenes. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) has already conducted a motorized inspection of the General Administration of Sport (GAS), and new breakthroughs may come in the coming days.
The new Chinese Super League (CSL) season will kick off in April, however, many fans may have stopped paying attention as the league becomes less competitive. But for the national team to improve, the CSL must improve. Unfortunately, how can the league improve when the environment of Chinese soccer is so bad? This creates a vicious circle. There is no need to blame Coach Jankovic and the players if the national soccer team performs poorly in the preliminaries and the Asian Cup. After all, the industry is terminally ill. Lippi had chosen to leave that year because he couldn't change the status quo and gave up his 100 million salary to return to Italy. This shows that a World Cup title does not substantially help Chinese soccer.
