Chinanews.com, Beijing, January 22 (Reporter Bian Liqun) Following the Dalian team, another domestic professional football club announced its dissolution.
On the 22nd, Shenzhen Football Club, the first champion of the Chinese Super League, issued a statement saying that the team was unsustainable due to serious historical debts, and the league journey had to come to an end.
This old domestic club fell on the eve of its 30th birthday.
So far, the Shenzhen team has become the third Chinese Super League champion club in history after Dalian Shide and Jiangsu team.
Club Statement
For the Shenzhen team, which had not previously appeared on the list of clubs with debts, this was an inevitable result.
In the 2023 season, the Shenzhen team with arrears of salary has suffered a serious loss of personnel, Jiang Zhipeng, Zhang Yuan, Yuan Mincheng, Mi Haolun and other powerful players left the team in the middle of the season, and Chen Tao, the head of the coaching staff, also had no choice but to resign.
The Shenzhen team, which is based on a group of young players, only won 3 wins, 3 draws and 24 losses, ranking first from the bottom and relegated.
Shenzhen team (orange) in the 2023 season of the Chinese Super League Photo by Zhang Chang
Looking back on the 30-year history of the Shenzhen team, the highest moment was the 2004 season, when the team had Li Weifeng, Zheng Zhi, Li Leilei and other famous players, and won the first year of the Chinese Super League. In the AFC Champions League in the next year, the Shenzhen team went all the way to the top four.
However, the good times did not last long, and the club's business situation deteriorated in the following years, and it was relegated to the Central League in 2011. In the 2014 season, the Shenzhen team fell into a serious crisis of salary arrears, and the players collectively raised banners in protest during the game.
In the golden era of Chinese football, the Shenzhen team, which was taken over by Kaisa Group, joined the wave of spending a lot of money, and when they returned to the Chinese Super League, they introduced domestic famous players such as Gao Lin, Wang Yongpo, Sun Ke, as well as big-name foreign aid such as Quintero and Wakaso.
But after the frenzied wave of gold yuan, the Shenzhen team fell into a serious historical debt crisis. With a long history of unpaid wages, the team has hovered near the relegation zone in recent seasons.
The heavy historical burden, as well as a series of unprofessional and quick successes during the Jin Yuan period, led to the club's delay in finding new investors, and the team's situation became more and more embarrassing.
According to the reporter's understanding, in the previous season, the Shenzhen team had been sponsored by powerful sponsors under the coordination of relevant parties, but the other party made it clear that this information did not need to be disclosed.
Shenzhen team (orange) in the 2023 season of the Chinese Super League Photo by Zhang Chang
At the beginning of 2024, the veteran team collapsed in grief, just four days before the club's "30th" birthday.
The club's statement reads: "Even if you don't give up, you need to wave goodbye. We will make every effort to carry out the aftermath work, sincerely wish Shenzhen football and Chinese football better and better, and hope that more people of insight can work together to contribute to the revitalization of Shenzhen football and Chinese football. (ENDS)