At the start of his new job, new Football Association (FA) president Song Kai issued a strict order requiring teams at all levels of the country's professional leagues to submit their applications for admission by December 5th. The move has brought forward the access drama of the spring of previous years. Today, China's league is experiencing a shift from a new era of public interest soccer led by real estate entrepreneurs to urban investment companies. Cangzhou Lions, the transition of the old and new era of the team, has become the focus of the access to the field, however, the team's reform of the stock issue has revealed the long-term unpaid wages of the hidden worry.
The most exaggerated claims about the length of time the Cangzhou Lions have been owed paychecks have been as long as five years, while widespread reports indicate that they have been going on for three years. Looking back at historical reports, the Cangzhou Lions have been shrouded in rumors of unpaid salaries almost every year. During this year's spring access tournament, it was revealed that the team was at least 13 months behind in paychecks, with six players refusing to sign paycheck acknowledgment forms. Despite this, the Football Association passed the Cangzhou Lions' access application.
Although the Chinese Football Association (CFA) has many domestic problems, it is difficult to deal with in front of FIFA. In June of this year, FIFA "failed to implement the arbitration award" as the reason for the Cangzhou Lions team to implement a "ban on the registration of new players" punishment. This shows that the Cangzhou Lions did not escape the sanctions of FIFA, but only the appearance of transnational disputes. According to the tradition of the Chinese Super League, the situation of teams owing money to foreign aid workers often affects local players as well.
So how did the CFA approve the Cangzhou Lions' entry despite the fact that six players were clearly unsigned? This is all thanks to a "magical operation" of the Football Association. It turns out that whether the players need to go through the FA arbitration, arbitration cases will be categorized by the FA as "disputes". Therefore, the situation of unsigned players is regarded as "disputes" rather than "salary arrears", which does not affect the club's access audit. Furthermore, some players received the results of the FA's arbitration on wage arrears the day after the transfer window deadline, which resulted in them not being able to join a new team immediately after their arrears were recognized and having to wait for the summer window six months later.
However, the CFA does not have a clean slate for all teams. The Cangzhou Lions were able to gain entry partly due to the team's stock reform. As we all know, former CFA president Chen Xuyuan advocates "public welfare soccer", believing that the era of gold dollar soccer has ended and that the future development of the soccer sector should be supported by socially responsible enterprises. Therefore, clubs that have undergone stock reform can spread the financial pressure of individual enterprises.
Naturally, the companies that bear social responsibility are not state-owned enterprises, and behind the Chinese Super League clubs often stand city investment companies across the country. The Cangzhou Lions, formerly known as Shijiazhuang Yongchang, moved to Cangzhou because of an injection of capital from Cangzhou Construction Investment. Currently, Cangzhou CIC and Yongchang Real Estate each hold 50% of the club's shares, while Yongchang Real Estate continues to be responsible for the club's daily operations.
The fatal flaw in the era of gold-dollar soccer is that the fate of the clubs is entirely dependent on the real estate companies. In contrast, public interest soccer led by city investment companies is more stable, but the change of leadership is still its fatal flaw. Shaanxi Chang'an Athletic and Cangzhou Lions have both fallen on hard times as a result. Whether this team can survive or not, I'm afraid it still depends on God's will.
According to Soccer Daily, there are still 4 teams in the Chinese Super League facing an existential crisis, and another 2 teams at risk of relegation are also in deep trouble. Despite the early start of the admission tournament, I believe there will be more exciting stories to come, so stay tuned.
