The time has come to the end of April, and the opening date of the Chinese Super League is still far away, and no one can give a definitive answer. In fact, the Chinese Super League has been held in difficult times for three consecutive years, which is only one of the many crises in Chinese football, and the current Chinese football has basically entered a "terminally ill" stage, and even people can not see any hope of improvement.
Crisis one: The league is postponed indefinitely
For a professional league, every adjustment to the schedule will have a significant impact, especially for the Chinese Super League. In the 2020 and 2021 seasons, the opening date of the Chinese Super League was postponed for two consecutive years, resulting in a significant compression of the schedule. This year, there is no hope of the Opening of the Chinese Super League in April, and even whether it can start in May is doubtful, which means that the Football Association's original plan to play 30 rounds, home and away, and the end of the schedule in November will be destroyed. The Chinese Super League, which continues to struggle with the "abnormal" format, has become one of the main obstacles to the normal operation of professional leagues.
Crisis two: the club's finances are depleted
After three consecutive years of blows, it can be seen from the transfer market of the Chinese Super League this year that the purchasing power of major clubs has even declined significantly compared with last year, not only can not bring in high-level players from the outside, but even the internal problem of wage arrears has become more and more serious, directly shaking the credibility and attractiveness of Chinese football. Affected by the general environment, the huge amount of money brought by Chinese football with "real estate football" in the past few years has been completely exhausted; where the investment growth point of the next round of football is still unknown.
Crisis three: the national team collapsed across the board
The Chinese national football team lost to the round of 12 and was controversial during the competition. The historic away defeat to Vietnam and the "crisp defeat" at the feet of oman, the former point-giving boy, indicate that the national football team has completely degenerated into a third-rate team in Asia at the level of strength. For all Chinese football with the guiding ideology of "national standard", the failure of the national team is essentially the systematic failure of the entire football work in the final four years, and it also gives another fatal blow to the external image of Chinese football, which is already full of holes.
Crisis four: The youth training system is unsustainable
Almost in parallel with the fiasco of the national football team in the World Preliminary Round, the defeat of the Chinese national youth in the Dubai Cup. Despite the victory over thailand, in the match against the West Asian powerhouse UAE, the national youth team has always been in the ascendant. At the same time, the technical and tactical level of China's new generation of young players, the gap between Japan, South Korea, West Asia and even Southeast Asian teams has become more and more obvious, and to this day, the 24-28-year-old players that the youth training system can provide for the national team are still scarce resources. The lack of follow-up to the youth training also makes it likely that Chinese football will not see any hope of surpassing its opponents in the next five years.
Summary: Each one is an unsolvable dead end
The current four major crises in Chinese football, any of which alone cannot be solved, is a "dead end". Taking the indefinite postponement of the league as an example, today's environment is simply impossible to ensure that the Chinese Super League can start on time, nor can it make the league format return to normal, at this point, even if the relevant departments formulate countermeasures, it is ultimately the arm that can not twist the thigh; for example, the club's financial problems, in recent years, the general environment has made many Chinese Super League clubs behind the "parent company" overwhelmed and on the verge of collapse, which is actually beyond the scope of football's cognition.
In addition, the four major crises are interlinked, and it is impossible to solve them individually, and only overall improvements can be made, which makes the work more difficult.
For Chen Shuyuan's current Leadership Team of Chinese Football, they are facing the most difficult period in Chinese football in the past decade. When Chen Shuyuan took over the FA in 2019, he and his staff probably could not imagine that the future prospects would be so dangerous. Originally, the most important task of the Football Association was only to curb the money-burning atmosphere of the Chinese Super League and suppress the salaries of players, but now, the old problems have not been solved, and new problems are constantly emerging. Now the only thing that can be done is to "do your best and obey the destiny".