Football is often seen as a form of geopolitical soft power. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Gulf states certainly think that way. But China’s long march into football has been less successful and has been affected by wider challenges in the PRC’s economy.
Guangzhou FC, once China’s leading professional football
club and a symbol of the country’s aspirations in the sport, has been dropped
from the national league after a drawn-out saga related to the collapse of
property developer China Evergrande, which bought the team in 2010.
The club — which won eight national league titles from
2011-2019, topped Asia’s Champions League twice and drew in names such as
Brazil’s Robinho and Italian coach Marcello Lippi — failed to meet financial
entry requirements. In a statement that referred to Guangzhou and two other
ineligible clubs — the Cangzhou Mighty Lions and the Hunan Billows — the
Chinese Football Association cited wage arrears and debt issues.
Guangzhou’s ineligibility is the latest blow to Chinese
football, which President Xi Jinping sought to develop when he came to power in
2012. In recent years, the sport has grappled with corruption scandals and
financial issues at the companies backing the teams.
Guangzhou FC, formerly named Guangzhou Evergrande, on Monday
blamed its “historical debt burden” and the “insufficient funds” to address it.
“To all those who cared about and supported the club, we express our sincere
apologies,” it said in a statement. After its purchase by property developer
Evergrande in 2010, the club embarked on a spending spree that included a host
of big-name signings, echoing the boom years of China’s vast and heavily
indebted real estate sector.
A host of other top developers also owned teams named after
them. But the failure of its majority owner in late 2021 derailed the club’s
plans for a new Rmb12bn ($1.6bn) stadium in southern China’s Guangzhou, mooted
to be one of the largest in the world, and relegated the club to the Chinese
league’s second tier.
In early 2021, the
club removed Evergrande from its name under a new rule prohibiting company
names to be used in football teams. In its most recent annual report, for the
year 2022, Evergrande did not mention the club except to state it had returned
land use rights for the stadium to Guangzhou authorities.
The football club was a big focus for Evergrande founder Hui
Ka Yan, formerly China’s richest man, who is under investigation in the wake of
his company’s collapse. Evergrande invested Rmb1.9bn to build Evergrande
Football School, one of the world’s biggest residential football academies,
with the help of coaches from Real Madrid in 2012, state media reported at the
time.
Guangzhou FC’s struggles follow the dissolution of Jiangsu FC in 2021 by its owner Suning Appliance Group, also owing to financial issues. Suning, which until last May controlled Inter Milan, was hit by an investment in an Evergrande subsidiary that failed to list.
Corruption issues also plague the country’s football league. Last September, the Chinese Football Association banned 43 people for life after an investigation uncovered match-fixing. The governing authorities in the PRC have made clear their determination to strike down corruption wherever it is found.
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