This afternoon, the Chinese Football Association issued the "Notice of the Chinese Football Association on the Work Related to the 2022 Season of the Chinese Super League, the Chinese First League and the Chinese Second League", which clarifies the solution and penalty rules for clubs to owe wages, and stipulates that clubs must resolve all wage arrears by December 31.
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The Chinese Football Association issued the "Notice of the Chinese Football Association on the Work Related to the Chinese Super League, the Chinese First League and the Chinese Second League in the 2022 Season", and the following is the complete content of the document.
1. Club access
1) According to the review of the materials submitted by each club, 18 clubs passed the Access Audit of the Chinese Super League in the 2022 season, 17 clubs passed the Access Audit of the Chinese First Division, and 22 clubs passed the Access Audit of the Chinese Second Division (see the annex for the specific list).
2) According to the actual situation of the participation of the clubs in the Chinese Super League, the Chinese First Division and the Chinese Second League, the scale of participation in the professional leagues at all levels and the relevant matters of the replacement are finally decided.
2. Solutions and penalties for wage arrears by clubs
(1) Considering the impact of the epidemic, the economy, the development of the main business of investors and other aspects in the past two years, and combined with the relevant provisions of the AFC access regulations, some clubs with wage arrears have also been conditionally granted access after submitting specific wage arrears solutions. At the same time, in order to ensure the relevant interests of players, for such clubs, unified provisions to solve the salary arrears and formulate relevant penalties, as follows:
1. Taking into account the current actual situation of the club, the club's salary arrears for the 2021 season and before will be resolved in principle by December 31, 2022.
2. Comprehensively consider the actual situation, wage arrears can be resolved in stages and batches, and there are three time nodes in July 31, October 31, and December 31, 2022: (1) Before July 31: To resolve wage arrears not less than 30% of the total amount ;(2) Before October 31: to solve the arrears of wages not less than 70% of the total amount ;(3) before December 31: to solve all wage arrears.
3. For clubs that cannot fully resolve the problem of wage arrears before December 31, 2022, the club must reach a settlement agreement with the unpaid personnel including but not limited to coaches, players and staff, and submit it to the Chinese Football Association for the record before 17:00 on April 8, 2022, and resolve the wage arrears in accordance with the time node determined in the filing agreement; clubs that fail to submit a wage arrears settlement agreement must resolve the wage arrears in accordance with the above three time points (only the Chinese Super League clubs apply this clause)
4. Before the three time nodes of July 31, October 31 and December 31, 2022, clubs must submit to the Chinese Football Association the 2021 season salary repayment form signed by all coaches, players and staff.
5. On the basis of resolving the salary arrears in the 2021 season and before, clubs should make funding arrangements for the 2022 season to ensure that there will be no new wage arrears in the 2022 season.
(2) Penalties
1. Clubs that fail to repay not less than 30% of the total salary of the 2021 season and before 31 July 2022 will be prohibited from registering new players at the second transfer window of the 2022 season and will be punished with a penalty of 3 league points.
2. Clubs that fail to complete the repayment of not less than 70% of the total salary arrears for the 2021 season or before 31 October 2022 will be punished with a penalty of 6 points deducted from league points.
3. Clubs that fail to settle all unpaid wages by 31 December 2022 will be subject to relegation or disqualification.
4. Clubs with new wage arrears in the 2022 season will be punished with deduction of league points, relegation or disqualification from the 2023 season, as appropriate.
5. Clubs that have reached an agreement with the unpaid person but fail to resolve the unpaid wages in accordance with the time node in the filing agreement shall be punished with reference to the above.
The Notice clearly states that if it cannot be resolved within the prescribed time, an agreement must be reached with the person whose salary is owed. Comprehensively considering the actual situation, the wage arrears can be resolved in stages and batches, and there will be three time nodes on July 31, October 31 and December 31 in 2022, each time node will repay a certain proportion of the arrears of wages, and those that cannot be achieved will be punished with penalties such as deducting points, prohibiting transfers, demotion, and canceling access.
Wage arrears is already a common topic in Chinese football circles, can the introduction of this unpaid wage solution really solve the problem? This big question mark was immediately hit on the cover of this plan, after all, clubs that seem to have unpaid wages in the outside world want to solve such a problem, and it is not a simple plan that can be solved.
As one of the captains of the Chinese men's football team, Arthur Junmin, not long ago also posted on social media to ask for salary from the Wuhan team, the "three brothers" who have always shown a good image have torn their faces with the club, which once again confirmed the speculation of the outside world on the current situation of Chinese football, and since then, Hui Jiakang, Xiao Zhi and other jinmen tiger players have also publicly asked for salaries on social media, and the club's salary arrears to them have been traced back to 2020, obviously two years have passed, there is no way to negotiate salaries, can only wait for arbitration, endless waiting...
The same Tianjin player, who previously went to Tianjin in the middle of the season to "fight the fire" in the former seaport Akhmedov submitted an arbitration application to FIFA for the club's arrears of salary, bonuses and other issues, and although Tianjin did not pay immediately, Tianjin paid all the money shortly after FIFA issued a transfer ban.
Foreign aid arrears to FIFA is useful, and domestic players have no way to negotiate salaries, the outside world has suggestions and suggestions to suggest that domestic players "copy homework" on the line, but most of the waiting are similar to the "repayment plan" of the "empty check", and the arbitration can be delayed for a day is a day, the court time is far away, and chinese football suffering from "procrastination" will roll the snowball of "arrears" bigger and bigger.
It can be said that if the plan promulgated by the Football Association today does not have the full monitoring and implementation of the regulatory authorities, then the statement in the plan of "reaching an agreement with the unpaid personnel" is actually no different from the previous "repayment plan" of the clubs. If there is no way to solve the arrears, deduct points, restrict reinforcements, and cancel access? In today's cold winter of Chinese football, many clubs are already struggling, every move is difficult, continue to do so when the club disbands, the players' salary journey will be put on the agenda, year after year vicious circle, off-court turmoil will completely cover up everything on the pitch.
And now the Football Association should not think about the relationship between players, clubs and the Football Association, and even with the Chinese Football Federation? To introduce a plan is only the first step, if there is no following, then the previous Guangzhou Evergrande and Jiangsu Suning are living examples, even if the players' union on the historical stage, then what is the use?
Don't end up inviting "General Fan" out of the mountain and saying, "You say that the solution to the arrears of wages this year is useful?" Cure the symptoms, not the root cause...".