Reporter Ye Hui disclosed that on December 29, Guangzhou team's situation makes recruiting new golden owners more and more tricky. In the face of Evergrande Group investors' resolute attitude, the club's equity reform seems to be hopeless.
With the relegation of Guangzhou, players with national team strength such as Wei Shihao, Yang Liyu, Yan Dinghao and Wu Shaochong have become the focus of competition among other Chinese Super League teams. The coaching team, including Zheng Zhi, Huang Bowen, Mei Fang and Zhang Chenglin, their stay and departure is also a mystery. After all, the club has limited financial resources.
Ideally, Guangzhou can expect to gain a foothold in the Central League if it retains most of its young players from this season and brings in some of the reserve team players who have played in the AFC Champions League. Even if investors continue to pull money out of the team, it will be able to sustain its operations by relying on income from the Chinese Super League dividends (if available) and live streaming bandwagons, plus signing sponsorship deals with cash value. Even if all the first-team players leave the team, the ladder players from the Evergrande Soccer School will still be able to fill in the gaps. But the question is, can the team survive relegation in the Central League? Truth be told, the outlook is not optimistic.
Twelve years ago, the Evergrande Group saved Guangzhou soccer from a crisis. 12 years later, will there be a new gold owner to lend a helping hand at the edge of the cliff? I'm afraid it's even harder. After all, the times have changed, Guangzhou team's situation is far from 2010 comparable. Although the shareholding reform was initiated by the Guangzhou team, the tough stance of the existing investors makes the reform basically hopeless. Unless there is a miracle.
