May 24th is undoubtedly a dark day for the Chongqing soccer community. With only ten days left in the new Chinese Super League season, Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic Football Club suddenly announced that it had ceased operations. With the wording "cease operation", seems to be more warm than "club announced the closure of", in fact, no matter what it is called the end, Chongqing Two Rivers Athletic Club has been fused with the long river of history.
Unable to return to Chongqing
Ahead of the official announcement, people in the know have already revealed the club's final decision. Players and followers have already started taking to social media to bid farewell to the team they once loved.
Due to longstanding salary arrears, the Chongqing team began a strike on May 16 and attracted widespread attention on May 18 when a black-and-white pay banners were hung in front of the club in a busy neighborhood in Chongqing. So far, the players have generally been owed more than a year's wages, with the longest even reaching 16-18 months. Long-term salary arrears have had a serious impact on the players' daily lives, with some players being forced to sell their houses and cars, and club staff even going so far as to work as takeaway boys in order to make ends meet.
During this period, the coaches and players remained powerless in the face of the insolvent Imago Group, despite their willingness to forgo their salaries until April 30, 2021 through an open letter.
On May 21st, a handwritten note from a relevant person from Imago Group was forwarded by Wei Xin, the leader of the Chongqing team. In this note, Jinsheng Group said, "Chongqing team this season budget of about 170 million, two rivers group of 50 million funding money is the key to the team to enter the competition. If the funds are not available, Imago Group will immediately stop the club's operation."
This document also reveals that Jinsheng Group has invested 3 billion since it has been operating Chongqing soccer, and now the group is at risk of bankruptcy with huge debts and is unable to take care of itself.
The road to claiming your debt gets tougher
Before the announcement of the cessation of operations, the Chongqing club was in desperate straits. "The club's management held a meeting with the first team to explain to the players that there was really no money in the account now and that there was no money coming in, there was no way around it", the insider revealed.
The club level has been expecting to save the team by pushing forward the share reform, but in essence there has been no progress, and the three-year $150 million funding promised by the Two Rivers Group has been slow in coming. "Because the historical debt is too huge, the share reform has actually become a deadlock, unable to find a program acceptable to all parties."
After the club announced to stop operation, players' salary collection will become more difficult. According to relevant data previously posted on social media by team leader Wei Xin, "The club has unpaid $551,696,575.87 by April 30, 2021.The club has unpaid $202,130,702.03 from May 2021 to March 2022." Much of that $700 million plus in arrears is owed to players and staff, as well as some basic operating expenses.
Although the club's official statement clearly indicated that "will try to gradually clear the arrears of wages through the later litigation recovery, debt recovery, asset sales and group loans, etc.", but it is clear to everyone that after the club ceased operation, because the club's legal entity no longer exists, the players want to get back to belong to their own wages, it is almost impossible! The task is almost impossible to accomplish.
In a similar situation to Chongqing, Jiangsu Suning, the league champion in the 2020 season, has been left unpaid for the large sums of salary owed to its players after it ceased operations, so much so that when Inter Milan won the Coppa Italia earlier, Suning players collectively asked Suning, via social media, to pay their outstanding salaries by Ait Inter's chairman Zhang Kangyang.
"Now can only be submitted to labor arbitration first, to see how much money can be recovered is how much", a Chongqing player 24 said to Sohu Sports.
In the official statement of Chongqing team, it is also mentioned that "the club assets, including furniture, electrical appliances, equipment, vehicles, etc., all bear the responsibility of clearing the salary arrears. I hope we do our best to protect the club industry security; at the same time, we also welcome colleagues to actively help find buyers, as soon as possible to complete the disposal of club assets and payroll arrears clearance."
This statement can only be used as a psychological comfort to the players, and in fact, Chongqing team account has long been no funds, even if the club assets successfully completed the bankruptcy pawning, can be back to the funds will be very limited.
