Chinese Football 2021: The Chinese Super League is in a dilemma The AFC Champions League defeated the national football team

Source: Sports Weekly

Chinese football in 2021 has struggled with the epidemic and difficulties. The Chinese Super League, which implemented the New Year's Eve season for the first time, is still a tournament system, the game is played empty, and the night of Shandong Taishan's victory is embarrassing to 0 fans. Under the predicament, 12 of the 16 teams in the Chinese Super League have unpaid wages, the defending champion Jiangsu Suning withdrew, Augusto, Arnautovic and other big names bid farewell, Guangzhou and Guoan participated in the AFC Champions League with reserve teams and suffered a fiasco, while the national football team participating in the World Preliminary Tournament wandered in many places, with a total isolation time of nearly 3 months.

Winter: The defending champions disappear and 12 teams owe wages

Before this season, the defending champion Jiangsu Suning could not find a next home to take over, and directly announced the dissolution on February 28, and the players could only find their own way out. Zhou Yun, after the 90s, was discouraged and directly retired, and foreign aides such as Teixeira and Eder are still begging for unpaid wages.

The impact of the epidemic factors, coupled with the New Deal of the Football Association and its own business difficulties, has made it difficult for many teams in the Chinese Super League. After the 8th chinese Super League champion Guangzhou team investor Evergrande suffered a crisis, the team owed wages, Cannavaro coaching team, naturalized players Axon, Alan and other 5 people have terminated the contract and left.

It is reported that in the top 16 of the Chinese Super League, there are only four teams that have not owed wages this season: Shandong Taishan, Shanghai Haigang, Henan Songshan Longmen and Dalian Renren. Among the other 12 teams, the longest Hebei team did not pay salaries and bonuses for more than a year, and the training base was forced to stop work due to the arrears of 50,000 yuan in water and electricity bills.

Qingdao players have not received unpaid wages for more than 8 months, Wu Jingui had no choice but to resign; Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic owed wages for more than 6 months, and South Korean media came to interview and found that coach Zhang Wailong could only buy cheap bread from his own pocket to fill his hunger. And these clubs are pinning their hopes on the share reform method to save the team's plan, and there is still no optimistic progress.

Reserves play the AFC Champions League: Fiasco! Guoan 9 people stayed overseas for 5 months

This season, there were supposed to be four teams in the AFC Champions League, but in the end only Guangzhou and Beijing Guoan entered the group stage. Jiangsu Suning, the defending champion who could have participated, withdrew, Shandong Taishan was penalized, and Shanghai Haigang, who replaced the participant, was eliminated in the play-offs.

Because of the epidemic, the AFC Champions League, which implemented the tournament system, directly collided with the Chinese Super League, and after the Football Association refused to adjust the schedule, Guangzhou and Beijing Guoan had no choice but to send a reserve team based on the U21 echelon to participate. In the end, the total result of the two teams was 1 draw and 11 losses, scoring 4 goals and conceding 40 goals, setting a record for the worst in the Chinese Super League.

The saddest thing is Beijing Guoan, before preparing to return to China, they encountered an epidemic in Uzbekistan, which caused some players to be infected, and 9 players and staff members were stranded for 157 days and nights before embarking on the return flight.

According to AFC data, in the 2021 season of the AFC Champions League, the Chinese Super League only got a pitiful 0.8 points, from the former First in Asia to the Seventh League, starting from the 2023 season, the Chinese Super League's participation name became 2+2, and in 2024 it was changed to 0 places.

Foreign Aid: Bid farewell to the shrinking big names

In the winter transfer window before the 2021 season of the Chinese Super League, the total expenditure of 16 teams is less than 25 million euros, compared with 4.03 euros in the same period in 2017. The impact of the epidemic has made clubs tighten their banks, and this season's standard king is Shenzhen's Colombian international Quintero, which is 9 million euros, and the second place is Shandong Taishan's Sun Zhunhao, 4.5 million euros.

When no big names arrive, the previous big names of foreign aid accelerate farewell. Before the season, Jiangsu Suning's Teixeira was naturalized and left, the Harbor Hulk returned to Brazil, and Shandong's Pele, Dalian's Hamsi and Longdong also left.

In the middle of the season, due to the serious epidemic in Brazil and the different epidemic prevention policies, coupled with economic factors, the national security captain Augusto, who could not return to the Chinese Super League, paulinho and Talisca of the Guangzhou team also said goodbye. In addition, Arnautovic of the harbor abandoned his high salary to land in Serie A, and Guoan's Bakambu and Vieira left one after another.

In contrast, the teams in the Chinese Super League are more cheap Taobao in the Chinese First Division or in the form of loan signings, Shenhua bought Meizhou Dunbia 4 million euros. Jin Yangyang, the local 80 million yuan in that year, leased from Shenhua to Tianjin Jinmen Tiger for only 500,000 yuan.

National football "wandering": the total quarantine time is close to 90 days

Due to the epidemic, the Chinese team only participated in one match at home in 2021 (7-0 victory over Guam in Suzhou), the remaining 9 games were played in the third party in West Asia, and 4 home games in the round of 12 were cancelled. Due to the different epidemic prevention and control policies in many places, the national football team spends most of its time in the cycle of flight, isolation, competition, and re-isolation.

From the beginning of the training camp for the Top 40 on May 15, to the return to China after the match with Australia, until the official end of the quarantine on December 7, the 219 days of quarantine of the national football team is close to 90 days.

If you add to the long flights and multi-site travel, coupled with the isolation time with the club in the division, many players spend up to 4 months of the year in the wandering and hotel rooms. At the beginning of the year, Alain insisted on returning to China even when his son was seriously ill, and the coaching staff and players were separated from their families for a long time, which was not easy.

Coach Li Tie also caused criticism because he frequently fired cannons at the press conference, saying that "there are 6 points at home" and "we are not easy, like children who have not returned home", until they resign.

Shandong championship night 0 fans: the first time in the professional league

This season, the Chinese Super League still implements a conference system, and the home and away games that fans expect cannot be restored. At the same time, because of the concession of the national football team, the Chinese Super League, which was carried out for the first new year, was stopped for four months from August 15 to mid-December.

After abandoning the format of the second stage of the last season, the 2021 season of the Chinese Super League has only 22 rounds. In the 19th round, Shandong Taishan defeated Hebei 2-0, and on the night of the 11-year championship, the fans were not allowed to enter the stadium, only some sporadic Shandong fans outside the stadium turned on the flash of their mobile phones to cheer for the team.

In the 28 years since the beginning of the professional league in 1994, it is the first time that there has not been a single fan at the championship site.