On May 22, AFP disclosed that Mulenga, the former foreign aid of Liaozhu football, as well as Bassiqi, the former foreign aid of Taizhou Yuanda, have both filed complaints against our club for salary arrears.
It is reported that Liaoning Hongyun Club has raised funds through auction to pay the outstanding salaries of the players, but there is still a big gap to the $850,000 demanded by Mulenga. Zambian striker Mulenga is not the only foreigner to suffer from salary arrears, Croatian midfielder Bassić is also facing the same predicament, and the amount of his specific salary arrears is not yet clear.
Both Mulenga and Bacic have accused the club of forging signatures to cover up the non-payment of salaries. AFP bluntly pointed out that it is not the first time that clubs have defaulted on players' salaries in the country's soccer world. However, the phenomenon reached its peak with the bankruptcy of Jiangsu FC in February - a fate that befell the Jiangsu team just 100 days after winning the Chinese Super League.
In an interview with AFP, Mulenga, who now plays in the Dutch second division, said, "I want to make this as public as possible so that more people know. Everyone must be held accountable until I get my money." He revealed that he had approached FIFA for help, but the response was that the club no longer existed and therefore could not solve the problem.
Liaoning, once the dominant team in the Chinese Super League, won the Club Asia Cup in 1990 and announced its dissolution last May. Mulenga said he was not paid in his second season with Liaoning: "Meanwhile, the Chinese Super League is going on as usual ...... defaulting on foreign players' salaries as if nothing had happened."
Bassic, 32, also revealed that last season he was owed two months, or about US$90,000, in salary by Taizhou Yuanda, a club that was only four years old when it was abruptly dissolved in March. Similar to Mulenga, Bacic accused the club of forging his signature on documents to prove that they had been paid to stay in the game.
Basci, who did not want to reveal his story before leaving the country, told AFP from his home in Switzerland, "They forged our signatures and completed the registration without any problems." He added that the club forged 15 signatures claiming they had received all his salaries. Part of his salary was paid in cash and he wrote to the International Court of Arbitration for Sport in January but has yet to receive a response.
FIFA did not respond to an AFP reporter's request for comment, while the Chinese Football Association (CFA) blamed a "small number" of clubs and said it was a matter for the courts and labor arbitration authorities. More than 20 clubs have announced they are quitting the professional league in the past two years due to financial problems, sending a warning to foreigners looking to cash in on the Chinese Super League, which attracted 60 million euros worth of foreign stars in 2017, including Oscar, but is now under financial pressure. Global soccer union federation FIFPro voiced its concerns to the CFA last year, telling AFP, "Given the large number of clubs that have closed down with little notice, we are concerned not only about the sustainability of professional soccer in China, but also about the lack of appropriate mechanisms to protect the livelihoods of players."
