The Chinese Super League is nearing its end this season, and for many clubs in deep trouble, the prospects for next season are fraught with uncertainty. Just recently, the news that Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group is expected to return to football has attracted widespread attention from the football community in Guangzhou.
A few days ago, at the 12th Party Congress of Guangzhou, Li Chuyuan, a party representative of Guangzhou City, secretary of the Party Committee and chairman of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd., said: "Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group intends to become friends with Guangzhou football again. As soon as this remark came out, it was reminiscent. At present, the prospects of the two Chinese Super League clubs backed by real estate companies in Guangzhou are not clear, as a large state-owned enterprise with strong financial strength in Yangcheng, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical's statement is to add a guarantee to the future of Guangzhou football.
In terms of strength, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group is a large state-owned enterprise with 1 listed company and nearly 30 member companies, ranking 129th in the 2021 Top 500 Chinese Enterprises, and ranking among the world's top 500 companies this year. In October 1984, Guangzhou Baiyunshan Pharmaceutical Factory signed a contract with the Guangzhou Municipal Sports Commission to jointly organize the Guangzhou football team on the condition of sponsoring 200,000 yuan per year, setting a precedent for national enterprises to undertake excellent sports teams.
From 1984 to 1992, Guangzhou football experienced 8 years of Baiyun Mountain era, with the opening of professionalization, the Sun God took over the banner of Baiyun Mountain, after the professional league, Guangzhou Baiyun Mountain organized the team to compete in the second division and the first b league for three seasons in 1998, and the team was disbanded at the end of 2000. At the beginning of 2006, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group returned to football and directly took over the Guangzhou team in the name of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group, they obtained 90% of the shares of the team, established Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Football Club, and successfully overtook as the champion of the Chinese First Division in the 2007 season. In February 2010, the Chinese Football Association punished Guangzhou Pharmaceutical and Chengdu Sheffield United for 2006 match-fixing, the two teams were directly relegated, and then a real estate developer named Xu Jiayin spent 100 million yuan to take over the team that was then regarded as a mess from Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group, and gave the team a new name guangzhou evergrande.
Suddenly, Evergrande has been on fire for ten years, and now it is the turn of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group to prepare for football again, but the question is, is it ready to marry Guangzhou team or Guangzhou City team? From the source point of view, it is logical to take over the Guangzhou team, after all, the Guangzhou City team is Shenyang Sea Lion from the root. However, it is also an indisputable fact that guangzhou players have high annual salaries and large club debts, not to mention the stadiums and football schools under construction, and the difficulty of solving the problem is far greater than that of Guangzhou City. Because of this, as soon as Li Chuyuan's interview came out, there was immediately a voice of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical selling the team for 100 million and then spending billions or even tens of billions to bring the team back. Therefore, from the standpoint of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical, whether from the perspective of investment or from the perspective of public relations, things must not be done that way! Having the original debtor take on all the debt, at zero cost or at the lowest possible cost, is probably the only solution they accept. In addition, there are also rumors that Guangzhou Pharmaceutical is not facing a two-choice one, but a two-in-one, that is, the integration and reorganization of the Guangzhou team and Guangzhou City. At this time, there is a question of trade-offs, and this problem does not belong only to the Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group.