China Super League (soccer league)
The start of the tournament has been delayed, yet the Chinese Football Association (CFA) has introduced a salary restriction policy, stipulating that the maximum salary of each team cannot exceed 3 million RMB. The move has left many players worried, as life seems to be getting tougher for many of them who were previously earning tens of millions of dollars a year. Meanwhile, clubs have responded to the policy by cutting unnecessary expenses to ensure the normal operation of their teams. The era of golden dollar soccer seems to be fading away, and a new round of reshuffling may be coming to Chinese soccer.
After the Spring Festival, teams have begun to gather and prepare for the game. Among them, no one has changed more than Guangzhou, a team that once terrorized the Asian soccer world and is now in dire straits. With the investor yet to be clarified and the share reform yet to take shape, Mr. Xu has to struggle to maintain the soccer business. The collapse of the business empire caught the Evergrande Group by surprise, and the club issued a pay cut order that far exceeded that of the Football Association, with an average annual salary of only 276,000 yuan and a total annual investment of about 15 million yuan, a staggering figure that in the past was only a fraction of Evergrande's investment. Foreign aid has left the team, local players also failed to renew their contracts, they even give up wages to seek a new way out.
Guangzhou team has assembled, but there are no familiar faces in the team. Ten years east of the river, ten years west of the river, the team is so down in the dumps let people sigh. This also reflects the current situation of Chinese soccer, investing huge sums of money to take shortcuts, and I'm afraid we can't continue on this path. I thought veteran Zheng Zhi would be on the coaching bench, but I didn't expect him to leave the team, Liu Zhiyu will take his place.
Evergrande's old rival Beijing Guoan's situation is no better. After the end of the Chinese Super League, they failed to keep any of the foreign aid, even the iron main force Li Lei also left the team, the strength is greatly reduced. This time the club will go to the ridge training, and Wang Gang due to fracture injury is particularly conspicuous, arm bandaged, the road to recovery is still long. Guoan team will be in Shanghai for the second phase of training, Wang Gang will accompany the team for recovery treatment.
Shanghai Shenhua will also be assembling on March 1, with players, loaned players and the coaching staff coming together. It's a bumpy road ahead for Shenhua, who have been plagued by the issue of unpaid wages, which could lead to the loss of many of their immediate players. Discussions will continue to focus on salary cuts, in addition to who will be the head coach.
The new season is bound to be seriously polarized, and if you want to return to glory, I'm afraid you'll need to go through a painful metamorphosis first.
