"Sworn to the honor of the Hill City, two years of pay arrears and no more youth."
"No shame for the Hill City, no shame for the fans, but sorry for the family."
The banners hanging on both sides of the entrance of Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic Football Club are particularly eye-catching. These are not only banners for players and staff demanding their salaries, but also harbingers of the decline of soccer in the mountain city.
Despite the efforts and struggles of many parties, but in this summer, the mountain city soccer helplessly announced "death".
On May 24th, 10:00, Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic Football Club officially released a notice, "After careful consideration by the club's shareholders' meeting, we very regretfully decided to withdraw from the Chinese Professional Football League and close the team."
The end of soccer in the mountain city is also a true reflection of Chinese soccer at the moment. In three years, three top league teams have announced their closure and withdrawal.
In May 2020, Tianjin Tianhai Football Club officially announced its closure. Tianjin Quanjian, which had introduced international stars such as Modeste, Pato and Witsel, as well as popular international players such as Wang Yongper and Zhao Xuri, was once in great demand. However, in the face of the challenges that followed, the "tycoon" team eventually failed to escape the fate of closure.
On February 28, 2021, defending champion Jiangsu Football Club announced the suspension of its operations. In the previous season, Jiangsu Suning, which had been dormant for many years, made team history by winning the Chinese Super League title for the first time under the leadership of Wu Xi and a host of other current players.
In the context of a series of policies promoted by the FA, including the "neutral name", and the economic crisis caused by the epidemic, Suning finally chose to close down. As of today, Jiangsu Suning still owes a significant amount of money in unpaid salaries.
On May 24, 2022, the stormy Chongqing team still could not escape closure.
Regarding the issue of unpaid wages of the club's players, the club has also made it clear that it will try its best to clear the unpaid wages gradually by continuously raising funds through subsequent litigation recovery, debt recovery, asset sales and group loans. However, as we all know, it is unlikely.
Counting from the year 1997 when Qianwei Huandao moved to Chongqing, the team that survived for 25 years in the Chinese professional soccer world bid farewell to the Chinese professional soccer world in a sad way.
"Due to the change of objective conditions, the share reform work has not been able to advance on schedule, the club's debts have been accumulating, the accounts have been frozen, and the life of the staff is extremely difficult." In fact, the difficulties mentioned in the official statement of Chongqing team exist in several clubs.
According to statistics, in three years, China's third-tier soccer league has closed 34 teams, and there are still many clubs struggling to hold on, and if they can't, they will be the same as Chongqing.
Neutral name, share reform, salary arrears, closure, Chinese soccer continues to struggle for survival in desperate circumstances. However, after the prosperity of "golden dollar soccer" faded, the Chinese Super League teams generally have financial crisis, the survival of the Chinese Super League is worrying.
First of all, there is nothing wrong with the policy promoted by the Football Association, including the "neutral name" policy, but under the current circumstances, it has directly led to the withdrawal of a large number of investors and sponsors. If the interests of investors and sponsors are not protected, who will have the extra money to support the team?
In addition, the share reform issue has also become one of the clubs and the focus of the game, in addition to Shandong Taishan, Shanghai seaport and a few other clubs successfully completed, a number of clubs in the share reform issue once in a stalemate.
At present, solvency has been the problem of Chinese clubs, clubs themselves almost no blood and profitability, when investors choose to retreat, the clubs face, but also only closed and exit.
Farewell to the mountain city, the cold winter of Chinese soccer, still continues ......
