ZCZC
BSP-07
FBL-ASIA-CHN
From boom to bust as Chinese football faces ‘bleak winter’
SHANGHAI, March 11, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – One Chinese Super League club is on
the brink of going bust and a dozen lower-tier teams have already gone to the
wall, indicating the problems facing football in China run far deeper than
the current coronavirus suspension.
All football in China is indefinitely on hold over the deadly virus, but
even before the shutdown a string of clubs had folded in recent weeks and
several more are in grave danger.
It is a far cry from the lavish spending of 2016 and 2017 when Chinese
Super League clubs, encouraged by President Xi Jinping’s ambitions to make
China a force in the sport, repeatedly smashed the Asian transfer record.
Tianjin Quanjian were typical of the largesse that saw the CSL make
headlines in attracting foreign coaches and players on world-leading wages.
But now, just a few years later, the club is up for sale free of charge,
although it is saddled with reportedly heavy debts.
The near-demise of the team from China’s northeast has provoked
introspection about the state of the sport in the country and suggestions
that the “football bubble” has burst.
Bankrolled by a traditional Chinese medicine firm, Tianjin finished third
in the CSL in 2017 under coach Fabio Cannavaro, the Italian World Cup-winning
captain.
They boasted Brazilian international Alexandre Pato in attack, had 20-
million-euro Belgian Axel Witsel in midfield and were closely linked with
Chelsea forward Diego Costa.
But when the Quanjian Group’s founder was arrested on charges of pyramid
selling and false advertising in January last year, the club was thrust into
the hands of the local sports bureau.
Thirteen players have left since the end of last season when Tianjin —
rebranded as Tianjin Tianhai — escaped relegation by four points.
“Its business model is typical of many CSL clubs — relying heavily on the
investment of owners and unable to generate significant revenue via marketing
or endorsements in the same way that elite European clubs can,” said the
China Daily, calling it “a bleak winter”.
– Quick profit –
When the communist government said in 2016 that it wanted China to be a
“top-class” football nation by 2050, it is unlikely that football-fan
President Xi envisaged clubs falling like skittles.
But including Tianjin, at least 15 teams in the top three tiers have
dissolved, are facing financial ruin or will not compete in the new season,
said Chinese sports writer William Bi.
Teams in China League One and League Two — the second and third divisions
— on average lost 20 million yuan ($2.9 million) in 2018, according to state
media.
Liaoning Hongyun in League One are still just about afloat, but captain
Sang Yifei said on the Twitter-like Weibo that the players were not paid for
the whole of the 2019 season.
When Guangdong Southern Tigers, of League One, folded last month, its
deputy general manager Wang Qian said too many club owners were out for a
quick profit.
“How did foreign clubs grow? They started from a pitch, a coach and youth
training. Nurturing players eventually generates income and then they can
form teams, starting in low-level leagues,” he told state media.
“But many Chinese bosses bought a first-tier team straightaway and then
subsequently invested in youth training.
“Before the youth training could work out, the first-tier team might have
already collapsed.”
– ‘No football culture’ –
The Chinese Football Association has brought in measures, including a
salary cap for domestic and foreign players, to rein in spending.
Worried about a glut of players suddenly out of work, it will offer free
courses to convert them into coaches at grassroots level.
Bi said investors raced into football in line with the government’s
ambitions in the sport, but soon found there was scarce profit to be had.
A downturn in the world’s second-largest economy makes pouring money into
clubs even less attractive, he said.
Bi said that while teams similarly lose money in established markets such
as in England, “in China, there is no football culture”.
“That’s the root problem of Chinese football,” he said.
“The survival of grassroots football requires love and passion (for the
sport), which Chinese people lack.
“Football is not a form of entertainment for most Chinese people.
“And without fans, what’s the point of investment for a hopeless team in
the lower league?”
BSS/AFP/MSY/1029 hrs