Just a few years after the deployment of the great Chinese soccer circus, the Asian giant’s plan is faltering. The Government of Beijing and the Chinese Football Federation have the goal of making the country a world soccer superpower in the year 2050, but the financial muscle that attracted stars to the Chinese Super League – the country’s league championship – has ended up showing the symptoms that it was already carrying before the pandemic: 12 of the 16 teams in the Chinese first division are not able to pay their players in a “nightmare” situation in the soccer business in the Asian giant in which part of the terror causes the fall of the economic support of the business: companies like Evergrande or Suning.
There are hardly any names left of the great signings that began to arrive in Chinese football almost a decade ago. Players close to retirement like Anelka or Drogba, then, made the headlines. They put Chinese soccer on the map. The owners of the clubs had the support of the real estate business. “The Evergrande Real Estate Group, whose chairman Xu Jiayin is the richest man in China, owns the Guangzhou Evergrande. Why these men want to spend their money on soccer is another matter,” he wrote at the start of the Chinese soccer boom. James Porteous, reporter in China.
Soccer is not the king of sports in China, but the national plan promoted by the Chinese authorities and the Chinese Federation itself intends to reach a milestone by half a century. In the particular world order of the soccer business, Europe encompasses much of the circus. At least in sports. The money that this sport has deployed in its modern configuration comes from the oil superpowers or from the backing of Asian money. Stars who immigrated to China did so with the expectation of salaries that were basically in a bubble.
In the 2016 winter market, and in a span of ten days, the Chinese Super League broke records for the most expensive transfers on three different occasions. First, then-named Jiangsu Suning (now Jiangsu FC), a club owned by listed manufacturer Jiangsu Sainty International Group, paid 28 million euros for Chelsea midfielder Ramires. The Evergrande real estate club paid 42 million for Jackson Martínez. Once again, Jiansgu Suning blew up the European market by paying 50 million to Shakhtar Donetsk for Alex Teixeira. None of the three continues in the country’s Super League and Jiangsu himself disappeared in February 2021.
strong puncture
It was not going to be so easy to build a superpower in a business like soccer. China’s vision, moreover, was not short-term. But the bubble puncture is evident. While the big stars and, therefore, the big salaries have been leaving Chinese football, the clubs have revealed their financial weaknesses. The media specialized in China Sixth Tone already warned at the end of last year of the “nightmare” that supposes that 75% of the members of the league, 12 of the 16 teams that compose it, are not up to date with their players. .
To the disappearance of the club that one day established a record in terms of transfers such as Jiangsu – whose former owner, Suning Holding Group, is also the owner of Inter Milan – is added that of the biggest competitor: Guangzhou Evergrande. It is the world’s most indebted property group and recently suspended trading on the Hong Kong stock market as a spate of bad news continues to heighten uncertainty about the company. and default risks loomed over its performance on the stock market and other groups related to soccer in China, such as the Kaisa Group, are also under pressure.
The Chinese government manages the stadium of Guangzhou Evergrande, a real estate club
In relation to sports, among the real estate plans was to create the largest soccer venue in the world. But the construction stopped and the Chinese government took part in the club. 1.86 billion dollars contemplated the concrete of the Guangzhou stadium, a venue that China is now considering selling to save part of the real estate business.
The plan modeled on financial muscle and stars to propel China as another soccer giant against Europe, for now, is not going to happen. There are hardly a couple of proper names left from the show on the grass playing for the Chinese. A model that is not sustainable and that seems to have lost its way.
The near future is not rosy for the soccer business in China. “Clubs were already suffering staggering losses before the pandemic. Since Covid-19 hit, their finances had taken a nosedive. The league returned after a four-month hiatus last weekend, but the action has seen overshadowed by the unbridled fall. The situation is terrible, and the future of almost all the clubs is in danger,” said the aforementioned Sixth Tone outlet, confirming the journey of Chinese football in the desert of crisis.