In the space of 10 days in early January 2016, the Chinese Super League (CSL) transfer record was broken three times. First, Jiangsu Suning paid Chelsea £24 million to sign Ramires. Then Guangzhou Evergrande paid Atletico Madrid £25 million for Jackson Martinez. Unwilling to be outdone, Jiangsu Suning went even higher, gazumping Liverpool to lure Brazilian winger Alex Teixeira from Shakhtar Donetsk in a deal worth £38.5 million.
And that was just the transfer fees. The wages were on
another level. Ramires saw his salary double to more than £10 million a year.
Likewise Teixeira, who was not even a full international.
All of this had been encouraged by President Xi Jinping, who
had declared an ambition to turn China into a “football powerhouse”. Huge
corporations such as Suning (retail) and Evergrande (real estate) had been
urged to bankroll the CSL. In return, they would gain greater global exposure
for their brands and, significantly, presidential approval.
But things were about to change. Government ministers began
to worry that paying a 32-year-old Tevez more than £30 million a year may not
be the best start to China’s long march to powerhouse status. Wasn’t this meant
to be about the growth of domestic football rather than a get-rich-quick scheme
for ageing players (mostly South American) and a handful of influential agents?
The Chinese FA announced a series of measures to address
“irrational investments by clubs, high-figure transfer fees and salaries paid
to domestic and international athletes and other issues”.Almost overnight, the
number of overseas players allowed on the pitch at any one time was reduced
from four to three.
Jiangsu Suning, last season’s CSL champions, no longer
exist; in February, just three months after their success, with a team still
containing Texeira and the former Italy striker Eder, the club was dissolved
due to the financial troubles that engulfed the Suning retail group.
The Evergrande Group is in crisis, raising serious doubts
not just about the construction of a new £1.4 billion, 100,000-capacity stadium
in Guangzhou, but about the future of the league’s most successful club.
Reports on Friday suggested the government has taken over the stadium project
and that Evergrande is trying to sell Guangzhou FC (which no longer bears the
company’s name).
Hebei FC have admitted to severe financial difficulties,
raising concerns they might not be able to compete in the championship stage
when (or if) the season resumes. Players at Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic
recently issued a statement saying the team had “lost ability to operate normally”
due to financial problems.
These issues go far beyond football. The Chinese economy is
facing much more serious challenges, with years of rapid growth followed by a
slowdown which has been compounded by COVID-19. First came the crisis at
Suning, then Evergrande and now there are fears for China Fortune Land
Development and other major corporations with clubs in their portfolios.
In March, the Chinese FA announced the introduction of a CSL
salary cap, whereby overseas players would be allowed to earn no more than €3
million a year, which works out at just under £50,000 a week. An agent suggests
no more than a handful of CSL players will be close to that figure. “Almost all
the big names have gone,” he says. “The type of players who would have earned
mega money with a swan song in China past are now more likely to go to the
Middle East.”
The bigger picture is that the CSL is suffering because
private capital is and the football industry has ceased to enjoy privileged
status.
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