Reporter Cheng Shan reported that on April 3, the Chinese Football Association issued the "Notice of the Chinese Football Association on the Notice related to the Chinese Super League, the Chinese First League and the Chinese Second League in the 2022 season" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), which mainly gave specific provisions on the access to the three-tier league in the 2022 season, the solution to wage arrears, and the resumption of payment of the guaranteed funds of the Chinese Second Division. One of the most eye-catching, of course, is the rules and regulations for access in the context of widespread wage arrears in the tertiary leagues.
As discussed in many media before, the Chinese Football Association has relaxed the principle of access, and has not adhered to the standard of not paying a club to enter, but allowed unpaid wages to enter, but the premise is that all unpaid clubs must pay off all unpaid wages in 2022, including two parts: historical unpaid wages and 2022 season salaries.
The specific provisions are: First of all, clubs must ensure that there will be no new wage arrears in the 2022 season. Then, taking into account the current situation of the club, the club's salary arrears for the 2021 season and before will be fully resolved in principle by December 31, 2022. Wage arrears can be resolved in stages and batches, and there are three time nodes on July 31, October 31, and December 31, 2022: (1) Before July 31, the settlement of arrears of wages is not less than 30% of the total ;(2) Before October 31, 2022, the settlement of arrears of wages is not less than 70% of the total amount ;(3) To resolve all wage arrears before December 31. 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; the Chinese Super League clubs that fail to submit the wage arrears settlement agreement must resolve the wage arrears in accordance with the above three time points.
To this end, the Chinese Football Association will supervise the club to submit to the Chinese Football Association the 2021 season salary repayment form signed by all coaches, players and staff before three time nodes. Clubs that fail to complete the repayment of not less than 30% of the total salary arrears for the 2021 season and before 30% by 31 July 2022 are prohibited from registering new players at the second transfer window of the 2022 season and are punished with a penalty of 3 points for league points; clubs that fail to complete the repayment of not less than 70% of the total salary arrears for the 2021 season and before 31 October 2022 will be punished with 6 league points; clubs that fail to resolve all unpaid wages by 31 December 2022 will be punished with relegation or disqualification. In addition, clubs with new wage arrears in the 2022 season will be subject to penalties such as deduction of league points, relegation or disqualification from the 2023 season, as the case may be. 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.
Once this access criterion was disclosed, it still triggered a heated discussion among fans and the media, and most people were worried about whether the interests of players could be effectively protected if unpaid wages could be accessed. In fact, the Chinese Football Association and the Preparatory Group of the China Football Federation made this choice, which was also fully investigated and considered.
Previously they issued an investigation letter to the clubs, requiring the clubs to report the specific wage arrears and liabilities truthfully, from the results of the recovery survey, wage arrears are a common phenomenon, and the range of wage arrears of the clubs is not small, the arrears of wages for more than half a year are the majority, in this case, in this case, to the access time to require repayment, the clubs can not be completed, if in strict accordance with the principle of not owing to wages can be admitted, then the Chinese Super League clubs have a great possibility of up to only 10 or so, so that, The first thing the league will face will be the termination of sponsors and the collapse of the basic plate.
Once this happens, the wages of players who quit and disband clubs cannot be recovered, referring to liao footballers, who have been seeking help between the arbitration department of the Football Association and the court for the past two years, but the arrears of wages have never been able to be recovered. The significance of maintaining the basic plate of the league is also that after the defeat of the Chinese men's national team in the round of 12, a top-down investigation of Chinese football has been carried out in an all-round way, and the determination to do a good job of Chinese football at the national level has not changed, with the 2023 Asian Cup held in China, the future of Chinese football is likely to usher in a favorable policy, in this case, only by keeping the basic plate of the league can we ensure that there is a policy to take advantage of the opportunity to start.
Of course, whether all the current rules and guarantees can be implemented in place depends on the next supervision of the Chinese Football Association, the supervision is the most important, and it is still in the form of a signature form, but it is recommended to combine the bank flow and take other financial supervision at the same time at the appropriate time to ensure that the clubs complete the payment of salaries in accordance with the agreement. At the end of 2022, Chinese football is likely to face a new development situation, and by then there will still be clubs with unpaid wages, and the Chinese Football Association really cannot tolerate it anymore.
The "Notice" also released the current situation of the three-tier leagues: according to the review of the materials submitted by the clubs, 18 clubs passed the Chinese Super League access audit in the 2022 season, 17 clubs passed the China A access audit, and 22 clubs passed the China B access audit. Because the Guizhou team of the Chinese First Division and the Sichuan Civil Football Team of the Chinese Second Division have not been admitted, the China Football Federation and the Chinese Football Association will confirm the actual situation according to the participation of the clubs in the Chinese Super League, the Chinese First Division and the Chinese Second Division, and finally decide the scale of participation in professional leagues at all levels and the relevant matters of replacement.