A look at the Double Crown saga of Shanghai Seaports. 2014, Shanghai officials took over Shanghai Dongya, and after four years of trials and tribulations, the team finally ushered in the first Chinese Super League title in its history. As a result, Chen Xuyuan was hailed as a "soccer believer". In the years that followed, Xie Hui, then an assistant coach and later an independent coach, a hero of Shanghai's championship, revealed that the trophy was worth as much as 12 billion dollars.
This scene is reminiscent of the Shanghai Championship controversy in 2009, and in 2018, when VAR technology was introduced for the first time in the Chinese Super League, many fans jokingly called it "the championship brought by VAR". In 2023, the team changed its name from Shanghai SIPG to Shanghai Seaports, and the Seaports won the championship again, lifting the second Chinese Super League trophy in the team's history.
And Hong Kong's second title was equally controversial. According to media statistics, in the first 20 rounds of matches, Hong Kong was awarded the most penalties of any Chinese Super League team (see below). Of course, these may just be coincidences, but they didn't dampen the celebratory mood of Hong Kong players and fans. The disputes over the ownership of each of the Chinese Super League titles have been of varying sizes, some major and some subtle.
It is worth mentioning that in this 44-player banned list, Beijing Guoan and Shanghai Harbor have no active players. I don't know if such a fan viewpoint coincides with this soccer ban list.
So are these three seasons the purest and most unblemished in comparison to other years of Super League titles?
