On November 4, the Guizhou football world is in turmoil again, a paper about the plea to harmonize the problem of unpaid wages was unveiled. The players jointly accused the team of up to 14 and a half months of salary arrears, looking forward to the relevant departments can be properly resolved. However, this incident did not provoke a strong reaction from public opinion. There is no other reason, unpaid wages are no longer new in the Chinese Super League.
Plagued by business woes, the Hebei team announced a work stoppage and vacation on Oct. 26, with players' unpaid wages accumulating into huge sums. According to media reports, half of the teams in the Chinese Super League are in arrears. But this is an optimistic estimate, accurate data shows that only three or four clubs in the Super League are not in arrears.
Most Chinese Super League clubs have shown signs of being out of their depth due to the mismanagement of their parent companies. Some clubs that are still paying normal salaries are also feeling the pressure and have even canceled the supplementary contracts they signed with their players. As these payments were not filed with the CFA, it is feared that they will be difficult to recover. Nonetheless, the players should be thankful that unpaid wages have become the norm among Chinese Super League teams.
The problem of salary arrears in the Chinese Super League stems largely from the prevalence of gold dollar soccer. Even if the players have taken a pay cut, the clubs are still struggling to support them. In addition, under the epidemic, the parent company of each team's operating capacity has declined sharply, investment in soccer is not profitable, give up investment seems to have become an inevitable choice.
Sports authorities around the world have also come up with a number of countermeasures, such as mixed ownership reform, including the Hebei team and the Chongqing Two Rivers Athletic Team, which are facing such problems. However, in terms of actual results, the reform has been slow. The Chinese Super League's tournament system has made it impossible for localities to benefit from it, and the neutral name reform is also highly controversial.
Under the impact of the Top 12, the Chinese Super League is struggling, the brand effect plummeted, resulting in the income of the teams is almost zero. Teams can't make ends meet, the problem of unpaid wages is getting more and more serious, the Chinese Super League soccer has fallen into an unprecedented predicament.
To some extent, the salary of Chinese players has not yet reached a reasonable range, and even some of the Chinese League One clubs that want to reach the Super League, the investment is still at a high level. Over the years, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) has issued a salary limit, but it is extremely difficult to implement. The crazier the investment, the more tragic the result today.
In the face of the problem of unpaid wages, the Football Association must think deeply about countermeasures. On the one hand, it has to avoid panic withdrawal of investors, and on the other hand, it has to set a timetable to solve the problem of salary arrears. The real question is whether the Chinese Super League can gather 16 teams in the second phase of the competition? It is important to realize that some teams have not yet assembled and are even on the verge of disbanding.
For Chinese soccer, the failure of the national football team to enter the World Cup is not the worst outcome. Once the league collapses completely, that's the most worrying situation.
