The 2021 season of the Chinese Super League came to a rushed conclusion, with the schedule forced to be drastically reduced, the home-and-away system abolished, and interruptions for the national team's preparations for the World Qualifiers appearing to be in tatters.
Epidemic and other factors have led to many clubs in trouble, foreign managers and high-level foreign aid have left the team, the team salary crisis, the league's competitive level and ornamental decline, the attractiveness of the Chinese Super League and the brand value continues to decline. Entering its 27th year, China's professional soccer league is standing at a historical fork in the road between survival and development.
Make way for national soccer, league in tatters
The 2021 season of the Chinese Super League became the first cross-year season since professionalization, starting on April 20, 2021 and ending on January 4, 2022. During this period, the league was suspended for nearly two months from May 17 to July 15, 2021, and for nearly four months from August 15 to December 12, setting a record for the longest suspension in the league. Previously, the 2018 Premier League had been suspended for 58 days during the World Cup in Russia.
Shandong celebrates winning the championship
The CFA abandoned the knockout system of the second stage last season, reducing the original 30-round schedule to 22 rounds. The suspension totaled up to 176 days in one season, which is extremely rare in world soccer. All of this is for the national football team to impact the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, however, with the national football team's World Cup dream dashed, the league's sacrifices seem to be in vain.
The two suspensions of the Chinese Super League directly led to the lengthening of the schedule, all the teams experienced two "devil schedule", players physical and mental are facing a huge test. The first "devil schedule" for July 19, 2021 to August 15, 27 days for 9 games; the second for December 12, 2021 to January 4, 2022, 24 days for 8 games.
The two "devil schedule" have adopted the rhythm of three days a game. On the one hand, fatigue tests the depth of the teams' benches, and on the other hand, it also increases the risk of player injuries, making fatigue the only sign of an intensive schedule. Coupled with the wave of foreign aid departures, the league's level of competition and spectacle declined across the board.
In contrast to the league for the national football team to make way for the face of the image of the foreign war, Shanghai Harbour, Guangzhou and Beijing Guoan team chose to give up the participation: Shanghai Harbour team in the play-offs out of the game, with the reserve team and echelon of the Guangzhou team and Beijing Guoan team to play in the group stage record of 6 losses, 1 draw and 5 losses, creating the worst record of Chinese teams in the AFC Championship, which led directly to the 2023 season of the Super League Champions League quota from the "3 +1" reduced to "2 + 2" (the league champion and the AFC Cup champion to get a seat in the main round). "3+1" reduced to "2+2" (the league champion and the AFC Cup champion to get a seat in the main round, the second and third place in the league to play in the play-offs).
Operational woes, the Chinese Super League all the way to the bottom
At the beginning of last year, just won the 2020 season of the Chinese Super League Championship of Jiangsu Suning Club announced the dissolution of the team since the first year of A A active in the league disappeared overnight. The fundamental reason is that the high investment "gold dollar soccer" has not been effectively restrained and regulated. Since then, a number of clubs into survival difficulties. Under the influence of many factors, such as the impact of the epidemic, many clubs' parent companies can no longer provide financial support.
The abolition of the home and away match system for two consecutive seasons and the implementation of the centralized match system, coupled with the neutral name reform of clubs as well as the implementation of measures such as salary restrictions and input limitations, have also greatly damaged the image of the Chinese Super League, and the brand value has fallen off a cliff. The exodus of famous foreign players has led to a significant drop in the league's attention and appeal. At the end of the year 2021, the Chinese Super League has stepped into the winter, but whether it can usher in the return of spring is still unknown!
Along with the operation in trouble, the Chinese Super League clubs frequently broke out salary arrears crisis. It is reported that the entire Chinese Super League as many as 13 teams have salary arrears, before the start of the second phase, there are still a number of teams in arrears of salaries and bonuses. Hebei team has been more than a year without pay, the second phase of the transportation costs are staff, players from their own pockets cobbled together, the club can not even afford to pay the electricity bill.
Hebei skipper Kim Jong-woo
Against Shandong Taishan team, Hebei team as many as 12 starters absent on leave, for the team's second phase of the winless record, Jin Jongfu can only helplessly said "the players are too poor". The Qingdao team, which owes wages for 8 months, suffered 11 consecutive defeats in the league, and has long been uninterested in the game.
Chinese Super League (CSL) clubs are in a difficult business situation with frequent wage crises, triggering a wave of exodus of famous foreign aiders. After the end of last season's Chinese Super League, big-name foreign aiders such as Shanghai Harbour's Hulk, Dalian People's Hamsik, Shandong Taishan's Pelé and Wuhan's Evra have already left the team. After the dissolution of Jiangsu Suning team, Teixeira and Eder also packed up and left.
By the middle of the league, Beijing Guoan's Augusto, Bieira and Bakambu; Shanghai Harbour's Arnautovic; and Guangzhou's Paulinho and Talisca had left en masse again. Dembele and Guilherme of Guangzhou City, who failed to return to the team in the second phase, are also likely to leave next season. Nowadays, only Oscar, Fellaini and Quintero are left in the Chinese Super League with few big-name foreigners, and the stars of the whole league are dimming.
Among the naturalized players, Ackerson, Gallart, Allan and Lo Guofu have returned to Brazil after their release, and given the current climate in the league, the likelihood of them rejoining the Chinese Super League is slim to none.
According to statistics, foreign aiders who left the Chinese Super League this season have reached 29, while only 16 foreign aiders were introduced. In addition to the Shenzhen team in last season finalized Jintro, this season's king of the bidding is the Shandong Taishan team's South Korean foreign aid Sun Junhao, the transfer fee is only 4.5 million euros, even less than one-tenth of the peak period of the Chinese Super League. 2016, Shanghai Harbour team had 60 million euros from Chelsea to introduce Oscar, creating a record of the Chinese Super League reinforcement.
Van Bronckhorst bids farewell to Canton City team
In the past, the Chinese Super League was full of famous coaches, but now the big name coaches are also waving their hands away. Before the season, Van Bronckhorst and Guangzhou City terminated their contracts, and Pereira bid farewell to Shanghai Harbor. In the middle of the season, Guangzhou's Cannavaro team chose to leave, and Beijing Guoan's Bilic is about to say goodbye to the Chinese Super League. The departure of famous and powerful players signaled the end of an era in the Chinese Super League.
The second phase of this season's Super League barely lasted until the final whistle in a sea of low-pressure, how to solve the problem of team survival in the future? How will the clubs' shareholding reform be pushed forward? How many of the 16 teams in the Chinese Super League will be able to stay in the league next season? Everything is still up in the air.
As the league cools down, can the locals carry the load?
In the context of the league gradually cooling down, a large number of famous managers and super foreign aid departure, local coaches in the Chinese Super League stage has gained more space to perform. The two consecutive "devil's schedule" tests the depth of each team's bench and youth training system. The large-scale departure of foreign aid, so that the "all Chinese class" has become the starting norm for each team, so that more local young players get the opportunity to accumulate experience.
Shandong Taishan won the Chinese Super League title again after 11 years, and Hao Wei became the first local coach in the Chinese Super League in 14 years to lead a team to win the league title. At the end of the Chinese Super League prosperity, Shandong Taishan team with internal and external reinforcements of the overall thickness and relatively strong talent reserves to the last laugh.
Hao Wei becomes the first local coach to lead a team to a league title in its entirety in the Chinese Super League in 14 years
Of the 23 players who played for Shandong Taishan, 17 were homegrown, with the club's youth system contributing 11. Of the 21 goals scored by local players, 18 were scored by players from the Luneng Football Academy, including 10 by Guo Tianyu, three by Wu Xinghan, two by Duan Liuyu, and one each by Zheng Zheng, Qi Tianyu and Liu Yang, who span five age groups from 1989 to 1999.
As the saying goes, "the train runs fast, but also the head of the car with". Among the local coaches, Changchun Yatai's head coach Chen Yang is the most representative. Changchun Yatai team to promote the identity of the league's biggest dark horse, Chen Yang credit. He adheres to a low-key and pragmatic style of coaching in the league, holding high the banner of defensive counterattack, unique, but also the eye of the introduction of the three major foreign aid Junior, Eric and Okore, so that the team's offensive and defensive strength to enhance a few notches, and ultimately get the seat of the AFC Champions League next season.
In addition, Wuhan team in Li Xiaopeng as national football coach, Li Jinyu led the team ahead of the relegation; Yu Genwei led his hometown team Tianjin team out of the relegation quagmire; Mao Yi Jun led Shanghai Shenhua team smooth transition. However, we should also see that the local coaches seem to have a rising trend in this season, but more because of the league contraction, the result after the departure of the famous coach.
At a time when Guangzhou's naturalized players left the team and its operation was in trouble, the club did not disorganize itself and showed unprecedented cohesion and strong fighting power in the final stage. And after nearly 10 years of development, Evergrande Football School has also cultivated a number of talents that can be made, emerging new stars such as Ling Jie and Tan Kaiyuan, and gradually have a tendency to take over.
The current downturn in the Chinese Super League (CSL) has objectively given local coaches and young players the opportunity to come to the forefront, signaling a major change in the future team building system of the CSL powers. However, whether local managers can support the Chinese Super League must still be a question mark. Any country or region that wants to have a hot soccer league and improve the level of the league can't afford to be short of capital investment and star play.
Without high-level coaches and foreign aid, it is difficult to guarantee the competitive level and brand value of the league. Whether local coaches and local youth players can reshape the Chinese Super League into a new fiery league after a major change in the development mode of the Chinese Super League is yet to be tested by time.
