For the Chinese professional football teams, after the "Golden Yuan Football" ended, the life of each team was not easy.
Yesterday, the Chinese Super League reignited the war, but the prospects of Wuhan Yangtze River and Guangzhou City were not clear. One was due to arrears of wages, and the other was that the share reform work was stagnant.
Wuhan Yangtze River was about to withdraw
After the end of the first phase of the Chinese Super League, the Chinese Football Association once again emphasized the timetable for "clearing debts", hoping that all relevant clubs will settle 30% of all owed wages before July 31, which is the maximum tolerance.
However, some underpaid teams did not solve the crisis, and the problem could only be delayed again and again until the Chinese Football Association resorted to the killer: teams involving underpaid wages, the new players introduced this season will not be able to appear.
In this way, only 15 players of the Wuhan Yangtze River team can play. If the U23 goalkeeper Gao Xiang and injured players are excluded, less than 12 players can play.
Subsequently, Wuhan Yangtze River Club and the Football Association communicated that if they were punished for this, they would choose to withdraw from the Chinese Super League.
The total amount of back wages of Wuhan Changjiang team is only 50 million yuan, which is not much, but why are the club investors reluctant to pay back the money?
The most important reason is because of the contract disputes with some coaches and players. The relevant arbitration result was produced in September last year, but Wuhan Yangtze River Club did not agree and refused to implement it.
This farce finally attracted the attention of the local authorities. After communication, Wuhan Yangtze River Club issued part of the salary, and some players who left the team received part of the salary.
Yesterday afternoon, the Wuhan Yangtze River team had already left for Meizhou, but what kind of lineup they will play in depends on whether they can solve all the problems of unpaid wages.
Even if Wuhan Yangtze River Club can survive this crisis, according to the time points set by the Chinese Football Association, it will continue to pay back wages on October 31 and December 31, and I am afraid that various problems will arise.
In fact, it is not just Wuhan Yangtze River. Some teams in the Chinese Super League have a huge amount of historical arrears, and it is difficult for the Chinese Football Association to continue to accommodate. Exiting is not a joke.
Of course, the attitude of the Chinese Football Association, to some extent, also made some clubs feel that there is absolutely no possibility of accommodation.
The Zibo Cuju team, which had previously abandoned the game, has now solved the problem of arrears of wages, which shows the necessity of the Chinese Football Association to adhere to the principles.
At present, both the Hunan Xiangtao team and the Xinjiang Tianshan Snow Leopard team have the possibility of withdrawing. There is still no sign of recovery in the Chinese Football Professional League, but it is not as bad as the outside world imagined.
The share reform is stuck in the old historical account
Compared with the Wuhan Yangtze River team, the current situation of the Guangzhou City team is even more worrying. The team's performance in the first stage of the Chinese Super League was incompetent, and it only relied on the Dalian team's low-level mistakes to get three points.
Fortunately, the club has reached an agreement with the players through negotiation, and the team has also fulfilled the requirement set by the Chinese Football Association to settle 30% of the total debt on July 31, keeping the only 3 points in the first stage of the Chinese Super League.
However, the share reform of Guangzhou City Club is still stagnant.
At the beginning of the year, the club's shareholding reform was very dynamic. The new investor formed a state-owned enterprise consortium, and even paid wages to the Guangzhou City team twice according to the original work contract, achieving no arrears in the 2022 season.
However, the Guangzhou City team's problems are stuck on historical debts, the new investors do not recognize it, and the original operation team of the club team is unable to solve it.
If the club cannot complete the share reform, it will not be able to unload its historical burden. The prospect of Guangzhou City's relegation has not been optimistic about the outside world, and there is even the possibility of early dissolution.
Guangzhou City team's historical debt, the team's salary arrears accounted for almost more than half.
The club hopes that the players can take the initiative to discount the amount of owed wages. After communication, the players still made a certain degree of sacrifice.
However, the amount of unpaid wages for foreign aid is almost astronomical, and there is not much room for negotiation.
It is still unknown how Guangzhou City Club will solve its historical debts.
To a certain extent, the evil consequences of the "golden dollar football" era are emerging. Although some foreign aids with high prices have left, the club's debt problem cannot be solved.
Under such circumstances, it is unrealistic to expect to promote the shareholding reform to save the team. It must be known that the new owner who takes over has no responsibility, nor is it obliged to settle old historical debts.
Our reporter Shen Wei