Original title: The 2022 season schedule is fragmented, the issue of wage arrears is unresolved, and the club is struggling to operate—(quote)
The Chinese Super League cannot be broken but cannot be built (theme)
Workers’ Daily-China Industry Net reporter Liu Bing
Recently, the 2022 Chinese Super League season has finally come to an end after going through twists and turns. The “new king” was crowned without a fight, the “eight champions” had no choice but to be relegated, the return to home and away games existed in name only, and the embarrassing performance of continuous abandonment… This season of the Chinese Super League is special and difficult. Due to the operational difficulties of most clubs, the unresolved issue of wage arrears, and the constant rumors of withdrawal and dissolution, the future of the Chinese Super League still has a big question mark.
The competitive landscape is quietly changing
On December 31, 2022, all matches in the 34th round of the Chinese Super League will end, and the 2022 Super League season will come to an end. As Tianjin Jinmen Tigers and Beijing Guoan announced in advance that they would abandon the game due to player health problems, the three towns of Wuhan won without a fight. In the end, they beat Shandong Taishan to win the Chinese Super League championship with 5 goal difference. The league was not a satisfactory way. Draw a full stop.
As the “promoted horse” of this season, Wuhan Three Towns has achieved 25 wins, 3 draws and 6 losses in 34 league rounds. After winning the Chinese League B championship in 2020 and the Chinese League One championship in 2021, they have won the championship trophy of their league for three consecutive years. However, due to the fragmented schedule and the postponement or even cancellation of many games, the victory of the three towns in Wuhan is not very convincing.
With the victory of the three towns in Wuhan, the original competition pattern of the Chinese Super League has completely changed this season, and the four “promoted” teams all rank among the top 10 in the standings. In addition to the three towns of Wuhan, the Zhejiang team won the third place, Chengdu Rongcheng and Meizhou Hakka ranked 5th and 9th respectively. This is in sharp contrast to the situation in which most “promoted” teams have been struggling on the verge of relegation for many years. The outstanding performance of the “promoted horses” has made the outside world have more expectations for Kunshan, Qingdao Manatee and Nantong Zhiyun who will be promoted to the Super League next season.
The opposite of the brilliant performance of the “promoted” team is the desolation of the old giants. Among them, the most embarrassing thing for fans is undoubtedly the former “eight champions” of the Super League Guangzhou team. They only achieved 3 wins, 8 draws and 23 losses this season, and they had no choice but to be relegated. In the past 12 years, the Guangzhou team has won the AFC Champions League twice, including the AFC Champions League, the Chinese Super League, the Football Association Cup, and the Super Cup, a total of 17 championships, creating a glorious era. The relegation of the former giants Guangzhou and Hebei marks the complete ebb of “Golden Dollar Football”.
What a “cold” word
In the last three rounds of the Super League in the 2022 season, due to various factors, there were a total of 8 game abandonments. Such a situation is very rare in the history of the Super League. Not only that, the overall operation of the Chinese Super League this season is extremely unsmooth. The game did not start until June, and the entire schedule was fragmented. Since November, due to the “collision” between the schedule and the World Cup, social attention has continued to decline. Obviously, the Chinese Super League has encountered unprecedented difficulties this season, which has made clubs, players, fans and the entire Chinese football community feel a strong chill.
What is even more worrying is that the wage arrears problem that has plagued the Super League clubs for many years has not yet been resolved. According to the regulations of the Chinese Football Association, all clubs must resolve all wage arrears before December 31, 2022, and submit the latest vouchers before January 6 this year, otherwise they will be punished by relegation or disqualification for the new season.
In November last year, the Chinese Football Association twice punished three clubs, Hebei, Wuhan Changjiang, and Shanghai Shenhua, for failing to repay their salary arrears in proportion.
Why did the Chinese Super League wage arrears issue become a “big problem”? Chen Changhong, deputy secretary-general of the Beijing Football Association, believes that the root cause is that most clubs in the Chinese Super League lack hematopoietic ability and cannot survive independently. “The previous ‘Golden Dollar Football’ caused a serious bubble in the league, and the club’s operating costs remained high. When clubs failed to make ends meet became the norm, many investors were disheartened and unable to support the difficult situation.”
It can be seen from the Super League standings this season that most of the top-performing teams are clubs with stable operations and no wage arrears. The relegation of teams such as the Guangzhou team is inseparable from the club’s deteriorating operating conditions.
The new season has a long way to go
In August last year, after a lapse of two and a half years, the Chinese Super League resumed the home and away system and opened the audience to the stadium, which has become one of the few highlights of the league this season. Following the match between the Dalianers and the Shanghai Seaport, clubs such as Wuhan Three Towns, Changchun Yatai, and Chengdu Rongcheng all returned to their home games. Relevant data show that in the 2022 season, the Chinese Super League will open spectators to 50 games, with a total of nearly 290,000 spectators.
However, the tournament system in the past three years has greatly reduced the income of the Chinese Super League and various clubs. Since the vast majority of games can only be played in empty stadiums, the revenue from event tickets has dropped sharply, which has also dispelled the sponsorship enthusiasm of various brands. According to statistics, the total loss of the Chinese Super League football market in the last three seasons was nearly 900 million yuan, making the situation of clubs that were already struggling to operate even worse.
Some people in the industry suggested that to solve the current difficulties faced by the Chinese Super League, the first is to establish the Chinese Professional Football Club Federation as soon as possible to improve the professionalism and stability of professional league management. The second is to improve the financial supervision system to ensure the continuous and stable operation of the club. Before the start of the new season, the Chinese Football Association made repeated demands on the issue of wage arrears, with the intention of forcing clubs to achieve basic security and reasonable financial operations.
The professional league is the cornerstone of the development of Chinese football. Only when the clubs operate in a healthy manner can the Chinese Super League survive in a healthy way, which in turn is related to the health of the “national brand” teams and the entire Chinese football environment. However, in recent years, there have been too many operational problems in the Chinese Super League, and the survival crisis generally faced by clubs is still severe. The Chinese Super League has reached a critical moment when it cannot be broken. Let professionals do professional things, let club operations truly return to the market, and let the league enter a virtuous cycle… Can you see improvement in these in the 2023 season?