In the 2023 season, Shanghai Seaport was once a laughing stock as the "Super League Champions" failed to qualify for the AFC Champions League. But the harbor is still based in Shanghai, even if it can not play in the Asian Championship, but also proud of Asia. In the eyes of the authoritative media, the Chinese Super League is still in the first place, no one can beat. In the face of skepticism, only to accept! This is the hegemony of the Chinese Super League!
Recently, the International Federation of Football History and Statistics released its top 20 list of Asian clubs (see above). The South Korean K-League leads the way with 6 teams, followed by the Japanese J-League with 5 teams on the list. The Chinese Super League and the Saudi Arabian League each hold three seats, while the Thai Premier League, the Iranian League and the UAE League each have one team on the list.
Shanghai Seaport (10th), Zhejiang (13th) and Shandong Taishan (15th) were the three Chinese Super League (CSL) teams that shined. Surprisingly, last year's Super League champions Wuhan Sanzhen did not make it into the top 20, while Seaport, who eliminated Shanghai in the AFC Champions League qualifying round, finished 10th as the highest-ranked team in the Super League.
The Thai Premier League team Batheaston United, which has no chance of qualifying for the AFC Champions League with Shanghai Seaport, can't even touch the threshold of the top 20 teams in Asia. The highest-ranked Thai Premier League team, Buriram, is tied with Shandong Taishan, reflecting the fact that even if Shanghai Seaport is unable to compete in the AFC Champions League, the International Federation of Soccer History and Statistics (IFHS) still considers it the No. 1 team in the Chinese Super League and one of the top 10 teams in Asia.
This season, Shanghai Seaport has focused on winning the Chinese Super League. In the AFC Champions League qualification match, the team only sent two foreigners to start, which seems to be disdainful of the Thai Super League team, but in fact, it is more like an early abandonment of the AFC Champions League. Without the constraints of the AFC Champions League and the AFC Cup, Shanghai Seaport can go all out for the Super League trophy.
However, fans were expecting this year's Big4 in the Chinese Super League to try to wash away the shame of the previous seasons of the AFC Champions League, not realizing that Shanghai, the strongest team in the Chinese Super League, was the first to withdraw, casting a shadow over the future of the Big3 AFC Champions League. There is no way of knowing when it comes to Hong Kong's choice. Fans can only conclude that the Chinese Super League team has shown the trait of being a "badass" whether they gave up voluntarily or had no choice but to lose.
In the past, we often say that Japanese and South Korean teams do not pay attention to the Asian Championship, and now the performance of the Chinese Super League also makes people feel disrespectful to the Asian Championship. The reason for this is that the influence of "gold dollar soccer" is so great that even in the declining Chinese Super League, there are still three teams ranked in the top 20 in Asia, and I am afraid that in a few years' time, the Chinese Super League's rankings in Asia will be in tatters. To be honest, giving up the AFC Champions League and choosing Hong Kong is really a hard thing to accept.
