Counting the days, the 2022 AFC Champions League campaign is now almost two months old. Although Changchun Yatai and Shanghai Harbor have already said goodbye to the 2022 AFC Champions League (Changchun Yatai exited on March 1 and Shanghai Harbor exited on April 11), I still have high hopes for the winless Guangdong team and the deep-rooted Shandong Taishan. Turning to April, since the 15 days of the Chinese Super League team's AFC Champions League journey, but as a hammer, the reality and the dream of the gap between the show to the fullest: Guangzhou team lost five battles, particles, conceding as many as 23 goals; Shandong team five battles, a draw and four losses, scoring only 2 goals, conceding 19 goals. These two teams are both senior teams in the Chinese Super League.
Witnessing this heartbreaking score, I couldn't help but raise my voice to the sky, "How could Chinese soccer come to this? Is it true that there are not 11 soccer players in a population of 1.4 billion? Back in the 60s, when the men's soccer team was not doing well, General He Long even directly ordered the team to be disbanded. Nowadays, the Internet is full of criticism and mockery of the men's soccer team, and even the national soccer team itself sometimes laughs at itself, and only by scolding the men's soccer team can it arouse people's interest. Personally, I think that the neutral title policy may be the last straw that crushed the Chinese men's soccer team.
So what is team naming? Simply put, it means that the players wear jerseys with the team's name on them, and the company funds the jerseys with its name on them, thus increasing visibility, while the team also receives financial support. In this regard, Guangzhou Evergrande is exemplary, building the Evergrande Group into a top-five developer in China with its golden dollar policy. However, why is the FA putting restrictions on the title again in 2021, requiring the removal of the team name? Personally, I think it may be due to the fact that the turnover of Chinese teams is too fast, which makes foreigners feel that Chinese soccer is very confusing, and thus this measure has to be taken.
I checked the breakdown of Chinese teams participating in the AFC Champions League in the 20 years between 2002 and 2022 and was shocked to find that many teams have disappeared. A total of 16 Chinese teams have participated in this 20-year AFC Champions League journey, but as of today, six teams have announced their dissolution, a closure rate of 37.5 percent. Among them, none is more regrettable than Jiangsu Suning, the Chinese Super League champion of the 2021 season, which withdrew from the Premier League and disbanded for special reasons.
I had been following a hometown team, Taizhou Yuanda, keenly and had spoken to the players. I found their situation quite bleak (only for the players I spoke to), not only do they have to play well, but they also have to run around to collect their wages, worry about the future of the club and think about their next stop. Perhaps it all stems from the FA's inaction. We often discuss that so-and-so player earns ten million dollars a year, but it is not the credit of the leaders, I remember Oscar who was brought in for 80 million dollars. The neutral title policy itself is not wrong, but it should be implemented after the league has a certain degree of popularity. However, the Football Association is forcing a neutral title at this point in time, and I am afraid that this will discourage companies that are interested in investing. As a result, more and more clubs will close, more and more teams will be unwilling to participate in the AFC Champions League, and the standard of players on Chinese teams will deteriorate. Then, in my lifetime, I will not be able to witness the rise of Chinese men's soccer.
