On April 24, Beijing time, the news that Shanghai Shenhua was banned by FIFA from registering new players around the world two days ago caused heated discussions, especially whether the 2 players who had just confirmed joining could still register. Just now, the reason why Shenhua was banned from signings was finally exposed, which was related to the former head coach.
The head coach is Flores, who took office at the end of 2018 and left school in 2019. In December 2018, Shanghai Shenhua officially announced that Spanish coach Flores was appointed as the team's new head coach. However, the new coach did not return Shenhua to the championship competition, but instead reduced the team to relegation.
In July of that year, the Chinese Super League halfway ended, Shanghai Shenhua only won 3 wins in 15 rounds of the league, and they only got 12 points in the 14th place in the standings, only 1 point higher than beijingers in the relegation circle and only 2 points higher than Tianjin Tianhai at the bottom, Shenhua is facing unprecedented relegation pressure.
Under such circumstances, Shanghai Shenhua issued an official announcement on July 3, announcing that Flores was dismissed, and the Spanish coach fled after only 7 months of work at Shenhua. But no one expected that the head coach who left class 3 years ago would have such a big impact on Shenhua after 3 years.
After Flores left the class, Shanghai Shenhua did not deal with the aftermath well, and Flores, who did not get the liquidated damages for a long time, finally sued Shenhua to FIFA. In June 2021, FIFA ruled that Shanghai Shenhua should pay Flores 12 million euros in liquidated damages.
After the news was exposed, Shanghai Shenhua also responded at the first time, saying that it did not accept the arbitration result of FIFA and would appeal. This is also the reason why Shanghai Shenhua did not pay the money last year according to the time required by FIFA and was not banned from signing.
After Shenhua appealed, the lawsuit lasted for more than half a year, and finally ended with Shenhua losing the lawsuit. According to the "Football" newspaper, the only gain of Shenhua's appeal is that the previous compensation amount has been negotiated from the previous 12 million euros after tax to about 12 million euros before tax. But for the current Shanghai Shenhua, even the pre-tax 12 million euros is a very large expenditure, and they have no way to repay it in a short period of time. In the end, because it did not pay within the time required by FIFA, Shanghai Shenhua was still punished by FIFA's ban on reinforcements.
A head coach who left class after 3 years finally let Shenhua be banned from reinforcements after 3 years, and the most important reason for such consequences may be that he did not sign a contract with Flores that year, if the performance requirements and conditions for graduation were clarified that year, then Shenhua may not have fallen to such a point as it is now.
Previously, Shenhua had already made it clear that they would not bring in foreign aid in the new season and play in the lineup of the all-Chinese class, which was a very big challenge for them.
In the absence of foreign aid, Shenhua could have further improved the strength of the squad by introducing some local players with strength, but now it is banned from reinforcements, and Shi Xiaotian and Li Songyi, who have completed the transfer procedures before, are facing the problem of no way to register, and the lineup promotion cannot be discussed.
In the case that it has been determined that there is no way to pay Flores's liquidated damages in a short period of time, Shenhua can only hope for the help of the Football Association, explain the particularity of the situation to FIFA, and let FIFA charter Shi Xiaotian and Li Songyi complete the registration procedures. It's just that fifa will be as "humane" as the FA, it is not known.