Reporter Jia Yanfeng reported on a paper ban by FIFA, Shanghai Shenhua was on the FIFA blacklist, and was banned from registering new recruits worldwide. Li Songyi and Shi Xiaotian, who had already completed the transfer, had a high probability of finding another way out.
So where did the ban come from? It turned out that it was Flores who once brought Shenhua to the relegation zone. The lawsuit with "Hua Shuai" lasted for two years, and Shenhua eventually lost the case.
Shenhua currently faces high compensation, but they are clearly incapable of repaying in the short term. This means that Shenhua under the ban has to rely on the existing people and horses to survive a period of hard life. In the era of Golden Dollar Football, Shenhua's investment is not expensive but the return is limited, and now they are forced to tighten their pants and belts to live a life, will they bring unexpected happiness?
Flores began to coach Shenhua in the 2019 season, when the annual salary was 7 million euros, which was at the middle and upper levels in the Chinese Super League that year, but the answers handed by The Coach in terms of results are difficult to say satisfactory, and even once brought the team into the relegation zone. After he left class, Shenhua Club's original plan was to negotiate with espanyol to pay the full salary for the 2019 season, and negotiate to pay part of it in the 2020 season, but there was no negotiation.
Shenhua believes that it is certainly unreasonable for the head coach to almost relegate the team and pay the full salary. But from a legal point of view, it is indeed the payment according to the contract.
Many people have therefore questioned why they did not take the lead in adding performance-related restrictive clauses when they signed the contract. For example, how many consecutive games are lost or the team is automatically dismissed after relegation. But in fact, when a big European coach signs a contract with a Chinese club, it is almost impossible to incorporate such clauses into the contract.
Such a situation is not unique to Hua Shuai alone, before the Dalian people were also sued by FIFA by Schuster because of the same situation, and after the German won the case, dalian people once also attracted a ban on reinforcements. But the reality is that, considering the true level of the Chinese Super League, big-name coaches can come to coach from afar, and they can only look at the face of money. After the two sides have been separated, you still want to talk about human morality, and they only look at black and white words.
In February 2020, FIFA ordered Shenhua to pay Flores wages, liquidated damages and interest, as well as FIFA fines totaling nearly 13 million euros (about 100 million yuan). Shenhua had appealed to the International Court of Arbitration for Sport, but in March 2021, the Court of Arbitration for Sport issued a final ruling, and on May 17 of the same year, FIFA issued a judgment to Shenhua that if Shenhua still refused to implement the judgment of FIFA and the International Court of Arbitration for Sport within 30 days, it would be subject to a series of penalties, including but not limited to the prohibition of transfer operations.
Nearly a year later, FIFA issued a ban on Shenhua from registering new players. The penalty logic given by FIFA is quite clear: work and contract are integrated, and they are separate, the contract is the contract, not to mention that the team is still about to be relegated when he is off the class, even if the team has been relegated, the contract money can not be less.
In the past two years, the only gain from Shenhua's efforts is that the amount of about 12 million euros to be paid before is the after-tax price, and now it only needs to pay about 12 million euros before tax.
Such a final judgment is naturally not a satisfactory result for Shenhua. At the same time, considering that the club has not yet completed the share reform and the economic situation is difficult, such a sky-high fee, it is difficult for Shenhua to complete the compensation in a short period of time. This also means that the penalty of banning the registration of new players will continue.
As for the two originally planned new signings, Li Songyi and Shi Xiaotian, they could have completed the registration before the ban was issued, but due to the impact of the Shanghai epidemic, the registration work was forced to be shelved - because if the player wanted to register after the transfer, he had to take the ID card to the local football association to verify his identity, if he could not brush the ID card, he could not handle further registration work, and after the Shanghai epidemic, the local football association could not work, and finally the two failed to wait for registration, but waited for the penalty of FIFA.
For Shenhua and the two players, the only hope at the moment is that the Chinese Football Association on behalf of Shanghai Shenhua asked FIFA for forgiveness and explained the situation, allowing Shenhua to register Li and Shi.
Otherwise, the winter window of the Chinese Super League will be closed in just a few days, and it is indeed difficult for the two players to have enough time to talk about other teams. And registering them is not a violation, because their transfer was completed before the ban was issued, and if it were not for the epidemic, the registration would have been completed long ago. The original intention of the FIFA ban is obviously not to hurt two players who have been innocently implicated due to the special circumstances of the epidemic, so if some efforts are made, there may be a glimmer of life. Of course, the final decision on this matter is still with FIFA.
Fortunately, at present, Shenhua's existing personnel reserves, at least in terms of local players, are still quite solid, the new season they intend to play in the whole Chinese class, in the current situation of the Chinese Super League of each team, Shenhua with the existing team to complete the relegation, should not be too big a problem.