On April 27, the Shanxi Longjin Football Salon announced on social media a news that shook the soccer world: the Salon will withdraw from the upcoming professional league. The announcement stated outright that the salon was in a sound financial position, had no salary arrears, and had withdrawn only because it had failed to pay the 600,000 yuan participation deposit on time.
It is reported that the CFA and CFF have made it clear as early as the beginning of April that participating salons in the new season of the China B League must pay their deposits on time. The amount of this year's deposit has been drastically reduced by 60% compared to the 1.5 million yuan for the 2019 season, an adjustment aimed at ensuring the stable operation of salons and maintaining the order and harmony of the league. Salons that fail to pay the deposit will lose their eligibility to participate in the professional league.
On April 25th, CFA released the list of participating salons in the new season's Chinese Super League, Chinese A League and Chinese B League through official channels. Among them, 18 salons succeeded in obtaining the qualification for the Chinese Super League; among the 17 salons reviewed by the Chinese A League, in addition to Qingdao Football Salon's withdrawal, the remaining 16, as well as Xinjiang Tianshan Xuebao and Beijing BeiTiDa, a total of 18 salons obtained the qualification for the Chinese A League.
In the third tier league, the number of teams participating in the Chinese B League has decreased. Together with the participating 2003 age group U19 National Youth Football Team, a total of 20 teams are participating in the new season of China League B, which is 4 teams less than the 24 teams in the previous season. According to the briefing of the professional league's working meeting on April 3, a total of 22 salons have passed the admission review of the new season of the China League B, except for the Sichuan Minzu Football Salon and the 2001 age group U21 National Youth Team.
Since the top four teams of last season's Central League B have already qualified for the new season's Central League A through the helicopter and play-offs, two salons, Xinjiang Tianshan Snow Leopard and Beijing BeiShiDa, have qualified for replacement promotion to the first division. As a result, the CFA and CFF decided to select six salons from a number of salons that qualified for replacement promotion to B based on their rankings in last season's Chinese Champions League.
It is worth noting that the CFA and the CFA preparatory team explicitly requested at the league meeting on April 3 that all China B salons that passed the admission review must pay a 600,000 yuan participation deposit. The tournament organizers had explained to the salons that the purpose of collecting the deposit is to supervise the normal operation of the salons and prevent problems in the middle of the season due to financial issues. At the end of the season, the deposit will be returned to the saloon. The Chinese Super League and the Chinese League A have not adopted the "Guidelines on Participation Deposits", mainly because the organizers can deduct from the participation fees all kinds of expenses incurred during the tournament.
In fact, in the 2019 season, the CFA and the professional league management organization had launched a similar guideline for the deposit of the China B League, when the deposit was charged at a standard of 1.5 million yuan. However, affected by factors such as the epidemic and the overall operational difficulties of Chinese B salons, the tournament organizers did not follow this method last season. However, the actual situation shows that it is not uncommon for some salons to owe wages due to financial constraints, and even have the intention to withdraw from the tournament. Individual salons also defaulted on hospitality expenses for a long period of time, causing loss of interest to all parties and also damaging the image of the league.
As a former Chinese B team that successfully broke into the first division last season, the exit of Shanxi Longjin is undoubtedly regrettable. In the announcement, Shanxi Longjin Salon expressed its regret for not having a chance to play in the new professional league, and emphasized that the Salon is in a good financial position, with no salary arrears. The salon also revealed that they had prepared to participate in the second division and to be promoted to the first division, but due to financial difficulties, they were unable to pay the 600,000 yuan deposit on time. However, the tournament organizer believed that Salon had already understood the background and specific management method of the "Guidelines on Security Deposits for China League B" and had been given enough time to raise funds. As a result, the failure to pay the deposit meant that Salon was unable to qualify for the tournament. The threshold for participation in the S.B. League could not be lowered any further.
