Today, China's soccer governing body, the CFA, has issued an urgent and heavyweight announcement aimed at pushing professional clubs to completely resolve the historical wage arrears problem. The announcement clearly states that professional clubs must, by December 31, 2022, resolve all historical wage arrears in full.
Here's the full text of the announcement released by the CFA:
Dear professional clubs in the Chinese Super League, Chinese First Division and Chinese Second Division:
In order to effectively promote the process of solving the problem of wage arrears, CFA issued a supplementary notice on July 7, 2022 on further improving the implementation of policies related to professional leagues at all levels for the 2022 season (Football Word (2022) No. 268), which emphasized that clubs need to strictly comply with the policy provisions, precisely implement the requirements of the program, exhaustively sort out the situation of wage arrears, and report the progress of the settlement in a timely manner.
Since the release of the document, the vast majority of professional clubs have completed at least 70% of the task of resolving wage arrears in the second phase. According to the notice issued by the CFA on April 2, 2022 on the work related to the 2022 season of the Chinese Super League, the Chinese First League and the Chinese Second League (Soccer Character (2022) No. 121), professional clubs must, by December 31, 2022, completely resolve all historical wage arrears.
Clubs are requested to submit the latest proof of repayment to the designated contact person of this notice before January 6, 2023 for the purpose of resolving salary arrears. The CFA will scrutinize the materials submitted by the clubs.
For those clubs that fail to complete the settlement of salary arrears within the stipulated time, the CFA will deal with them seriously in accordance with the relevant penalty provisions in the Circular on the Work Related to the 2022 Season of the Chinese Super League, the Chinese First League and the Chinese Second League.
Stay tuned.
China Football Association (CFA)
Published: December 21, 2022
