Because of the epidemic, Chinese football is really difficult. The Football Association is worried about the location of the league, the club is worried about the survival dilemma, and the players and coaches are also worried about the pressure of long-term salary arrears...
How to solve the difficulties? Under the impetus of the relevant departments, the Football Association finally began to discuss how to refund the adjustment fee. However, there are a total of 6 clubs that have paid the adjustment fee, and Quan Jian has withdrawn from Chinese football, and Dalian's adjustment fee will also be returned to the account of Wanda Group; therefore, the refund of the adjustment fee can solve the urgent needs of individual clubs, but it cannot change the bad environment, and the survival of players is more difficult than the outside world expects!
Half a year of salary arrears is small, and some players looking for clubs to ask for salaries are angrily reprimanded by the boss "don't face"
Almost everyone who follows Chinese football knows that many clubs have different degrees of unpaid wages. How serious is the degree of wage arrears? In the words of a player privately: "Our team only owes half a year, which is relatively small." Serious examples such as Chongqing, the "Football" newspaper broke that Feng Jin was owed 15 months and chose arbitration; while the players in Hebei broke out as early as last season, they were owed 18 months (these months did not send money, basically ran for two years).
As for the reasons for the non-payment of wages, many people have mentioned before that this is the sequelae of golden dollar football; but in fact, most clubs have cleaned up almost the big contracts left over from the golden dollar football period. Clubs like Qingdao, which have withdrawn and have never participated in Jinyuan football, also have long-term unpaid wages. The main reasons that really lead to long-term wage arrears in various clubs are these two points:
1. It is related to the epidemic. The epidemic has indeed had a very big impact on the survival of many enterprises, the parent company has no money, and the football club that relies on the parent company for blood transfusion is definitely not good.
2. Incorrect guidance of the FA. Last winter, the Football Association released Zibo, Hebei and Chongqing (such as the Jinmen tiger was caused by pressure from the relevant departments, not the Football Association's idea). The investors of many clubs are a little tight on the funds themselves; originally there was a slight surplus, and they first replenished the football club. But last year, many investors saw that unpaid wages can also be accessed, and everyone does not take unpaid wages seriously; some clubs even hope that the media will expose unpaid wages and use the voice of public opinion as a means of negotiation.
From the perspective of most players (including some foreigners who have been playing in the Chinese Super League for many years), everyone can also understand the difficulties of investors; they can accept late payment, and even accept a 30% or 20% discount on salary. However, the compromise of players is often not the sound of bank cards arriving, but being deceived again and again; many players can only constantly communicate with the club and even exert pressure, but this often does not have a good result.
For example, the boss of a southern club said to some salaried players that there is no pattern, "no gratitude", and "no face", and after saying it, the players were blocked. For example, the boss of a northern club directly told the player that you asked the former boss for money (the contract was signed when the former boss was there). The reason why players who previously played in Wuhan such as Arthur Junmin will openly ask for salaries, as well as the collective arbitration of so many players, is largely because after being owed wages for a long time, they are constantly fooled and insulted! Some old, well-made players even make it clear in private that they are not going to play, and they have to fight the club to the end!
Why can clubs be lawless? Each family took advantage of the FA's concessions to find an opportunity to shuffle
Players can't get money, so they have to go to the Football Association to arbitrate; however, this winter, there are very few players who get wage arrears + free bodies at the same time. And the reason for this situation is that it is necessary to have a responsibility.
If the access regulations are strictly enforced, at least 8 of the 16 clubs in the Chinese Super League last year will withdraw from the professional league; the clubs withdrew from the third-level professional league will have to run at least 30+. Two years ago, when the league was admitted in the 2020 season, the Football Association strictly checked at that time, resulting in nearly 20 clubs including Tianhai and Liaozu withdrawing from the professional league. At that moment, some people were nervous, so at the level of access, the Football Association has been trying to avoid the recurrence of the situation in that year.
I don't want to see the situation in 2020, but the situation of the club's salary arrears is much more serious than it was then, what to do? When it was admitted this year, the Football Association clearly informed the club that there could be unpaid wages, but it needed to be filed with the Football Association; and set a buffer period and a time point for repayment. In addition, Wuhan, Chongqing and Zibo, which were affected by the transfer ban, were also temporarily released from the transfer window, allowing a large group of players to be introduced.
From the perspective of the Football Association, they are doing this in the hope of giving clubs more time to solve problems, maintaining the vitality of the league by increasing the transfer flow, as long as the club is alive, the league has the hope of solving the problem; and stressing that this is done with the interests of all parties in mind. When the Football Association released the transfer ban to Wuhan, Chongqing and Zibo, Ma Dexing, a well-known media person in the Sports Weekly, also broke out: these three clubs submitted a package of specific implementation plans to solve the problem, and made relevant commitments, the Football Association only after research "temporarily lifted the decision to 'prohibit the registration of new players' penalties for the above three clubs".
Sometimes, however, reality and fantasy are different after all. As early as after Teacher Ma's public relations article came out, some former Zibo players jumped out and retorted: "Originally Zibo Keju a few days ago, the club took the initiative to negotiate with the arbitration players because they could not register new players, and the result was that the Football Association lifted the penalty, and the club did not solve it, and the speed of changing faces was really admirable"!
The situation in Zibo is by no means unique in Chinese football; at this stage, many clubs are not afraid of players suing them to the Football Association, nor are they afraid of any rulings of the Football Association. At the operational level, these clubs cannot solve the salary arrears, so the players who owe wages are solved. If a player wants to transfer, he must erase the unpaid wages; if the player chooses to stay in the team, but refuses to accept a sharp salary cut or give up most of the unpaid wages, then the player is not far from decentralization and three stops; as for the vacant places, there are still a lot of free players waiting to be fooled in the transfer market; many clubs have taken advantage of the LOOPHOLEs of the Football Association "can owe wages" and "open the transfer window" this winter to shuffle the squad.
Many clubs do not want to solve the problem at all, and the Football Association has not done a good job in the problem of unpaid wages
According to the "three-step" plan of the Football Association, the part of wage arrears should be resolved before July 31 this year not less than 30% of the total amount, 70% of the total wage arrears should be resolved before October 31, and all wage arrears should be resolved on December 31. If it is not resolved in accordance with the regulations, it will be deducted points, fines, cancellation of registration qualifications and other near-step penalties according to the specific circumstances. But in implementing these regulations, the FOOTBALL Association has overlooked a question - do localities or investors want to solve the problem?
Some investors do show the sincerity to solve the problem, they transfer the debt relationship between the player and the club to the group (and other subsidiaries) or by the group to guarantee (meaning that even if the club withdraws, as long as the parent company is still there, the money can be returned by going to the people's court). This type of club that wants to pay back money and shows enough sincerity should of course be allowed to enter conditionally. But there are also many investors who have long mortgaged the club as an asset; the ownership of the club is not in their hands, as long as all the debts can be written off in bankruptcy, then they will still care about the club's life and death? And the reason why such clubs are still drawing big cakes for players is just to use football as a game chip; once the club loses its use value, it is not far from completely picking. When some player agents and clubs propose that the unpaid wage agreement needs to be guaranteed by the group or a third-party company, the club boss directly leaves the negotiating table; when some clubs claim several times that they will solve the problem, but the pie has been drawn for almost two years, will such a club repay the money? What is the purpose of letting such clubs who don't want to pay back at all?
"Not on either side, but also not for any club to easily lie flat on the grounds of financial difficulties. Chinese football can face difficulties together, but does not accept deliberately not keeping promises. This is a summary given by Liu Jun, the former Jiangsu boss who currently works at the China Football Federation, when talking about the principle of access. However, when many players in Hebei and Guangzhou sued the club to the arbitration tribunal, they chose to withdraw the lawsuit after receiving the guidance of "obeying the overall situation", settled out of court, and finally gave up all the unpaid wages in exchange for freedom; and in the past two years, we have seen so many cases of players not getting wage arrears after arbitration, but the club refused to implement the arbitration and was punished, and then it can temporarily open the transfer window and other realities... On the issue of unpaid wages, has the Football Association really achieved a bowl of water? And the club owes wages, tearing up the contract does not need to bear any cost, is Chinese football really an "extralegal land"?
Previously, the "Football" newspaper had broken out that the Football Association originally hoped that the clubs could solve some of the unpaid wages first, but after being responded by several clubs that "we can quit", the FA compromised, thus allowing the unpaid wages to be admitted. And many clubs are likely to take similar actions in the future. There are already clubs that have clearly informed the players after the transfer window is closed that the salary arrears will not be given, they have discussed with a number of clubs, and everyone will not give it at that time, depending on how the Football Association cleans up this mess!
When the FA repeatedly tolerated, there was no sign of solving the problem, the FA should come up with principles, for some old Lai clubs should do it!