In the hot summer of 2018, the soccer transfer market once again made waves. According to Northwestern Lookout, then Guangzhou Evergrande dropped a whopping 400 million RMB in one-off reinforcement adjustment fees for two foreign stars, Paulinho and Talisca.
Time is running out, and we have come to the year 2020. In the financial statements released by the Shanghai Harbor Group not long ago, a long-forgotten term - reinforcement adjustment fee, once again triggered widespread concern. It turns out that the attraction adjustment fee for Arnautovic, a foreign aid player of the Shanghai Harbor team, is as high as 150 million yuan, and it is listed as "important other payables with an age of more than one year". For a while, Chinese fans and media have been hotly debating this topic. The Football Association previously announced in a press conference, Evergrande, Luneng and Dalian side have paid the reinforcement adjustment fee. According to the exclusive news of NetEase Sports, among them, Evergrande paid as much as RMB 400 million in adjustment fees for Paulinho and Talisca during the 2018 summer transfer.
It is worth mentioning that neither the FA nor Shanghai Harbour Club has made any response regarding the RMB 150 million owed to the CFA for the reinforcement adjustment fee disclosed in the 2020 financial statement released by Shanghai Harbour Group. The legality of Shanghai Harbor's use of Arnautovic in the Chinese Super League has been questioned due to the fact that the CFA has previously made it clear that players who do not pay the adjustment fee are not allowed to be registered.
In fact, the Chinese soccer's reinforcement adjustment fee policy began in June 2017, aiming to guide the Chinese Super League clubs to rational investment. As of March 2019, the Football Association announced on its official website that Beijing Guoan for Bakambu and Bieira, Luneng for Fellaini, Evergrande for Paulinho and Talisca, Dalian for Hamsik, Gaetan and Carrasco, and Quanjian for Modeste, with a total of five clubs paying the adjustment fee for nine foreign aiders.
It is worth mentioning that Evergrande paid more than RMB 400 million in adjustment fees for Paulinho and Talisca, which have already been paid in full. In addition, the general manager of Guoan, Li Ming, also said in public that the club has paid the full amount of attraction adjustment fee. Moreover, the Football Association in a number of announcements clearly pointed out that Luneng, Evergrande, Guoan and other clubs have already paid the fees, so it seems unlikely that some media sources have previously revealed that the Football Association did not provide clubs with an account to pay the adjustment fee.
So why has the adjustment fee for Arnautovic, who joined Shanghai Hong Kong in July 2019, been in arrears to date? Some media outlets have pointed out that it's because the Football Association is unable to issue an invoice for the reinforcement adjustment fee, and therefore Shanghai Hong Kong, as a state-owned enterprise, is unable to make the payment. This argument should be very likely, it is understood that although Evergrande has paid more than 400 million adjustment fee, but so far has not received the corresponding invoice for the adjustment fee.
However, Luneng also belongs to the state-owned enterprise unit, they are able to pay the adjustment fee for Fellaini, so it seems that the reason that Shanghai Hong Kong still owes the adjustment fee does not seem to be justified.
Obviously, Hong Kong does not intend to default on this fee, but more likely due to the Football Association in the process of collecting "reinforcement adjustment fee" there are many procedural problems.
Previously, there are also reports that the CFA, after decoupling from the General Administration, issued and implemented the reinforcement adjustment fee, should be based on the provisions of the Regulations on the Registration and Management of Social Organizations for approval. However, the CFA has not gone through all the procedures for approval to collect the reinforcement adjustment fee, and they had the idea of putting this income into the China Football Development Foundation. But according to the relevant provisions of the management of associations and foundations, this adjustment fee charges can not be counted as a unit of the endowment fee, is still collected by the Chinese super company, which has violated the management of associations and charges for a number of management regulations, some financial rules and guidelines and even difficult to overcome, resulting in the attraction of the adjustment fee has now become a "hot potato".
Therefore, the failure of Shanghai Hong Kong to pay the adjustment fee for Arnautovic in time may be mainly due to the FA. However, the FA has so far not provided any explanation for Shanghai's failure to pay the adjustment fee, nor has it provided any explanation for why Arnautovic was allowed to register without paying the adjustment fee.
Now, leaving aside the question of why Arnautovic was able to register successfully to play in the Chinese Super League, up to now Shanghai Hong Kong has still been unable to pay the fee, is it fair to the clubs that have already paid the adjustment fee, and should the CFA return the fee?
Affected by the epidemic, as well as the investment restrictions of the Chinese Super League, the previous clubs to pay hundreds of millions of adjustment fees, once you can return, this fee will be equivalent to the entire club's annual operating expenses, for the club's investors will also be a great burden reduction.
