New Football Association (FA) president Song Kai has vowed to tighten up the league's entry criteria, but this year's process has been plagued by a lengthy wait as in previous years. The FA first gave teams a 10-day grace period, then promised to announce the entry list in stages, and now the results of the initial review have finally surfaced.
Beijing Youth Daily's reporter Sean revealed that the Chinese Football Association (CFA) has conducted a pre-qualification process for the admission of clubs to the Chinese Super League (CSL), Chinese First Division (CA) and Chinese Second Division (CBD) for the 2024 season, and the results show that a total of eight clubs have failed to pass the process, including two from the CSL, four from the CA, and two from the CBD.
Shockingly, traditional giants Beijing Guoan were among the list of Chinese Super League clubs that failed to pass the preliminary examination. On the same day that the results of the preliminary hearing were announced, Guoan's foreign aid player, De Souza, left a message on social media platforms, "First they need to pay me."
So what exactly has befallen Beijing Guoan?In December 2016, Sino Land acquired a 64% stake in Guoan FC for 3.55 billion yuan; in June 2021, it acquired the remaining 36%. Today, Guoan is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sino Land.
In September 2021, the sudden collapse of the Evergrande Group plunged the real estate industry into a cold winter, and Sino Land was not spared.2023 In June 2023, all of the shares of Guoan FC held by the Group were frozen, and the court ruled that creditors had a right to pledge these shares and a right of first refusal to the relevant price.
As a result, the Beijing Guoan club is now a victim of the crisis of its parent company, Zhonghe Land. Another Chinese Super League club that failed to pass the preliminary examination was the Cangzhou Lions, originally a wholly-owned real estate company of the Yongchang Group, which later moved to Cangzhou and acquired a 50 percent stake in Cangzhou Construction Investment, but is still operated by the Yongchang Group.
However, Cangzhou Construction Investment subsequently stopped investing in the Cangzhou Lions, leading to serious wage arrears issues at the club. However, the team is working hard to resolve the access issue, with the coaching staff and local players agreeing to salary extensions, 70 percent of the foreign aid salary arrears having been repaid, and the rest of the arrears of about US$1 million being resolved.
Beijing Guoan and Cangzhou Lions are the only two remaining clubs in the Chinese Super League that are controlled by real estate companies. This marks the end of the era of "real estate soccer" that once led the Chinese Super League. Cangzhou Lions, in particular, has a shareholding structure that connects the two eras and exposes the risk of "urban investment in soccer". If Chinese soccer clubs can't get rid of their dependent status and realize independent management, the league admission review will always be a drama full of variables.
It is reported that clubs that do not pass the initial review still have the opportunity to add and improve their materials. The Cangzhou Lions are actively working on this, while Beijing Guoan's historical position and geographic location seem to portend difficulty in passing the final access review.
