On April 11, Beijing time, the AFC officially announced that Shanghai Harbor team withdrew from the group stage of this season's AFC Champions League, and at the same time, SIPG officials also issued a document confirming the news. At this point, Shanghai Harbor has become the second Chinese Super League team to withdraw from this season's AFC Champions League after Changchun Yatai. Two teams have waived AFC Champions League qualification within a year, which is the first time in the history of the Chinese Super League, which shows how difficult the current environment is for China's professional teams.
In the history of the AFC Champions League, there is no precedent for the withdrawal of Chinese Super League teams, and Liaoning Hongyun has given up the AFC Champions League qualification. But this is the first time that two teams have chosen to retire from the tournament at the same time, as this year has occurred. Compared with Changchun Yatai, the withdrawal of Shanghai Harbor is more or less passive, and due to the reasons that Shanghai is now well known, it is an impossible task for SIPG to send a team to play abroad.
In fact, SIPG is not only unable to participate in overseas competitions, but even how to participate in the new season of the Chinese Super League is confusing as of now. Now trapped in Shanghai are two teams, SIPG and Shenhua, in the current environment, how should they leave Shanghai and enter the Chinese Super League? This is another very difficult issue and an extreme test of the coordination ability of the Chinese Super League organization.
The last time Changchun Yatai withdrew from the tournament, it has greatly displeased the AFC, directly questioning the "sincerity" of the Chinese Super League team for the AFC Champions League. But to be honest, in fact, it is not that the Chinese Super League team does not want to play the AFC Champions League, but it is really that the arm cannot twist the thigh, and the environment requires the Chinese Super League team to give up the AFC Champions League. And what's worse is that this situation seems to see no possibility of improvement in a short period of time, which basically means that the withdrawal of SIPG and Yatai from the AFC Champions League may appear in other Chinese Super League teams in the future.
Now, the Chinese Super League only has two AFC Champions League teams left this season, Shandong Taishan and Guangzhou, and the two teams cannot go to the AFC Champions League with full force. For the Chinese Super League team, the current AFC Champions League has changed from the object of the past to a huge burden of labor and wealth. When will the environment of Chinese football return to its former normal?