In China's professional league, a controversial guideline of attraction adjustment fee is facing a major test. The survival or abolition of this guideline is in the spotlight, and the huge fees previously paid by clubs are facing a re-examination, with a clear conclusion likely to be reached in the future: will they continue to be levied or will they be refunded to the clubs?
The FA's response to this issue stems from an application for the recovery of fees by a club that had paid the attraction conditioning fee. In addition to the reasons why other clubs had not paid the fee in accordance with the rules, the club cited an existential dilemma, pointing out that clubs in the Chinese Super League were generally facing an operational crisis. Since the fees collected by the FA lacked legitimacy, claimed to be used for youth training but could not be accounted for, even invoices could not be issued, and some clubs had even remained unpaid, it would undoubtedly be a reasonable claim if the money could be used for club operations.
It is reported that the leadership of the Football Association has instructed the relevant departments to discuss the matter and try to give a solution. If the refund is indeed made, it will obviously not be limited to one club.
Reinforcement transfer fee began in 2017, the Football Association in the summer of 2017 registration transfer period on the collection of reinforcement transfer fee related to the work of the implementation of the views: clubs such as reinforcement expenses exceed the reasonable range, in the CFA registration for the registration of the player transfer, should provide proof of remittance to the account of the CFA ball development foundation. If the formalities are complete, the registration office of the CFA will handle the registration and transfer of players for the club.
In February 2018, the Football Association issued supplementary rules on the implementation of the work related to the collection of reinforcement adjustment fee, emphasizing that: in the process of transferring players, the club has the reality and behavior of avoiding the payment of the reinforcement adjustment fee, the club will be given the punishment of deducting the points of the league in the 2018 season and should make up for the payment of the reinforcement adjustment fee, and, at the same time, suspending the player's eligibility to participate in the competition until the club finishes making up for the payment. The rules also specify the criteria for deduction of points, up to 15 league points.
Since 2018, the FFA has publicized the transfer of conditioning fees on several occasions.
On February 22, 2019, the Football Association (FA) issued a notice on the continued implementation of the policy of attraction adjustment fee in the 2019 season of the Chinese Super League and the Chinese First League.
On December 31, 2019, the Football Association released the notice of the Chinese Football Association on the adjustment of the guidelines of the professional league for the 2020 season, which stipulates that "the standard of the transfer and reinforcement conditioning fee for domestic players and foreign players will remain unchanged, and the levy of the conditioning fee will be changed from a full charge to a differential charge (i.e., a conditioning tax will be levied only on the portion of the transfer fee that exceeds the standard portion). "
The last well-documented public announcement by the FA regarding the attraction conditioning fee was on March 19, 2019 That is to say, since the summer window of 2019, there has been no further public announcement of the relevant information. By the winter window of 2021, the most recent payment of the Citation Adjustment Fee was made by Shamrock FC for Quintero.
According to statistics, coupled with 2018, the cumulative transfer of eight foreign aid involved in the payment of the transfer fee, respectively, Paulinho, Talisker (Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao), Hamsik, Carrasco (Dalian party), Ba Kambu, Bieira (Beijing Zhonghe Guoan), Fellaini (Shandong Luneng Taishan) and Modesto (Tianjin Quanjian), the above players transfer to pay the total amount of the transfer fee of more than one billion yuan. Together with Jintero, Guoan, Evergrande, Dalian people, Luneng, Quanjian, Shenzhen football, have paid this money.
However, the fee program, the Citation Adjustment Fee, has been controversial since its inception.
First of all, the Football Association at that time planned to incorporate this fund into the CFA Ball Development Foundation, in order to be used for the construction of soccer infrastructure, youth soccer development and other work. However, according to the relevant management regulations of associations and foundations, this conditioning fee charge could not be counted as a donation fee of a certain organization, which has violated a number of management regulations of association management and fee charging, and some financial rules and guidelines are even difficult to overcome. Specifically, the clubs cannot be invoiced for the fees collected, and the funds collected cannot be utilized as intended because of the various rules governing the management of associations and fees.
Secondly, Shanghai Seaport's failure to pay up the conditioning fee for Arnautovic has also been widely disputed.
In the annual report for the year 2020 released by Shanghai International Port (Group), the column of other payables in section 11 of the financial report shows that Shanghai SIPG Club (now Shanghai Seaport) still has the amount of 149.53 million RMB in the form of a conditioning fee for the introduction of the foreign aid Arnaud that has not been paid to the CFA. Shandong, also a state-owned enterprise, paid the conditioning fee for Fellaini, but the Harbour Club has not turned it in, even though Arnautovic has moved away in the summer window of 2021, making the existence of this guideline, and the collection of this fee, highly controversial.
Previously, the media reported: "According to the insiders of the Football Association, Chen Xuyuan, who is in charge of financial power, has his own view on the policy of adjustment fee for reinforcement left by the previous term - since the Chinese Super League Company and the CFA can not issue invoices to the clubs, they should not continue to collect the fees from the clubs. This is why Arnau's transfer fee has only existed on the books for a year and has been delayed." If the report is true, it means that Chen Xuyuan, the president of the CFA, also recognizes the problem of the transfer fee for reinforcements, so this time, when a Chinese Super League club claims the transfer fee that was previously submitted, it is the best opportunity to adjust this policy.
