With Jiangsu Suning's dismal exit from the 2021 season of the Chinese Super League, many saw it as a symbol of Chinese soccer's fall into the abyss. However, the truth is more grim and cruel than people expected. Evergrande's financial woes led to the loss of its carrier club Guangzhou to a famous coach in Cannavaro, the team failed to assemble for a long time, and naturalized player Golat also chose to leave. While the images of Evergrande throwing thousands of dollars to build a luxury team are still fresh in our minds, the situation of the Guangzhou team is even more saddening nowadays. In contrast, those small and medium-sized clubs that have been operating on small capitals as a way of survival have also lost their way under the pressure of the capital market, making the winter of Chinese soccer particularly difficult.
Recently, some soccer media people broke the news on social media that Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic's first-team has stopped training for vacation due to a serious lack of operating funds, with a return date to be determined. Although Chongqing has not officially responded to this, those familiar with the team's struggles in recent years will not be surprised that this scene is happening to Chongqing soccer.
The Chongqing team's unpaid salary problem starts from the 2019 season. After struggling to be relegated by virtue of wins and losses in the 2018 season, Chongqing finished 10th in the Chinese Super League in the 2019 season, and the team never suffered from relegation problems, which was not easy. However, just in May 2019, the team suddenly broke the news of salary arrears, and there were even rumors that foreign aid Fernando and other refused to participate in training, which is the first time that the problem of salary arrears of the Chongqing team has been publicly put on the stage. Subsequently, the media reported that the outbreak and publicization of this unpaid contradiction is just a trigger, the real reason is that during the relegation period of the 2018 season, the team opened up as much as ten million winners have not been honored. In the players' "resistance", the 2018 relegation winnings were finally realized, but for the well-funded heavy football, the problem of unpaid wages has not been completely resolved.
In the 2019 season, the bonuses of heavy soccer players are still owed. When the transfer window opened that summer, Chongqing sent out Fernando and Peng Xinli in succession, which triggered the dissatisfaction of then manager Jr. Cruyff, but it was a necessary and effective means of relieving the club's huge financial pressure. However, the good times didn't last long, and in the past two years, Chongqing's preparations for the tournament have been affected by unpaid wages, and player strikes have been a recurring theme for the club. It is worth mentioning that in the 2020 season, even though the team's salary arrears have not been resolved, Chongqing team under the leadership of manager Zhang Wailong killed the title contenders group, completed the relegation goal in advance. After the relegation, they loaned out Adrian, the core of the team, to Guangzhou R&F at the first opportunity, which also showed the outside world the team's determination to survive.
However, in January this year, the Chongqing team, which was training in Guangzhou for the winter, suddenly announced a vacation and had no clear assembly time, which made the outside world clearly feel that the heavy football had come to the brink of collapse. Fortunately, under the impetus of the local government departments, the Two Rivers Group agreed to inject 150 million yuan in the form of an annual funding fee of 50 million yuan, and the first two years of the funding fee can be paid for the first time in order to solve the club's urgent problem of unpaid wages.
However, the grant money still failed to completely solve the problem of unpaid wages of the heavy soccer team. Although Chongqing completed their access and entered the Guangzhou tournament, they were again rumored to have withdrawn from the Chinese Super League tournament in the 5th round of the competition. Although the club's senior management stepped in to stop the crisis, the issue of unpaid wages remained unresolved, and they were in a similar situation twice in the following two intervals. Now, Chongqing's financial crisis has erupted again, and they've even resorted to "shock therapy" like Hebei before them by suspending the club's operations and taking a vacation. What awaits them next is hard to predict.
It is worth mentioning that Guizhou, another Central League One team that has recently been mired in rumors of salary arrears, successfully entered the Meizhou tournament after reaching an agreement with the club's senior management, but it is also clear that their salary arrears crisis has not been fundamentally resolved. In the previous season, the team's salary arrears problem had already existed, only that the club allowed the players to complete the salary confirmation form by releasing part of their salaries before the start of the tournament, thus allowing them to enter the tournament without any problems. According to soccer newspaper reports, this time, Guizhou team players decided to participate, because from the 10th, they have got the club "private customized" different treatment programs, which does not exclude the debt in kind program. Obviously, the problem of Guizhou's unpaid wages has not been fundamentally resolved, and they can only do "one step at a time, see one step at a time".
There is no doubt that the result of the clubs stopping their transportation and taking a vacation is something that the CFA, the clubs, the players and the fans don't want to see. However, when the cold winter of Chinese soccer comes, such a cruel reality can only be presented in front of our eyes again and again. Hebei team, Chongqing team, including the Guizhou team that has been stationed in the tournament area, the problems they are facing, in what way will eventually be resolved, or can still be resolved, I'm afraid that all the teams experiencing operational difficulties also want to know the answer ......
