Chinese football in crisis: Guangzhou out of professional leagues
Guangzhou’s meteoric rise began when real estate developer China Evergrande acquired the club in 2010, when it was still in the Chinese League Two.
The new ownership group renamed the team Guangzhou Evergrande and invested heavily on and off the pitch, in line with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ambitions to turn the country into a football superpower capable of hosting and winning the World Cup.
Italian World Cup-winning coach Marcelo Lippi was appointed as head coach in 2012 and led the team to three Chinese Super League titles, a Chinese Football Association Cup title and an AFC Champions League title.
Luiz Felipe Scolari, who led Brazil to World Cup glory in 2002, was even more successful, winning seven trophies in two and a half years.
Former Tottenham Hotspur and Barcelona midfielder Paulinho, ex-Italy striker Alberto Gilardino and ex-Colombia striker Jackson Martinez all arrived for high transfer fees and equally high wages. One of the foreign stars here.
But Guangzhou is not the only country spending huge amounts of money.
As the Chinese Super League seeks to compete with giants such as the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A and the Bundesliga, many international players have arrived in China.
Brazilian striker Hulk joined Shanghai SIPG, managed by former England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, for £46 million.
Chelsea midfielder Oscar soon followed suit with a £60m move Former Manchester City and Manchester United striker Carlos Tevez has moved to Shanghai Shenhua for a reported £40 million.
They all earn huge wages, and in 2016 Chelsea manager Antonio Conte said the money Chinese clubs spent on players was “a danger to all teams in the world”.
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger added that “China wants to have the financial resources to move the entire European leagues to China”.
In 2019, Real Madrid’s Gareth Bale was briefly the most expensive player in the world. Related to transfer to Jiangsu Suning Weekly wages of £1 million.
But things soon began to change. The Chinese Football Association, wary of spiraling spending, has imposed a “luxury tax” that makes big-money transfers prohibitively expensive.
A salary cap was also introduced and sponsors were banned from naming teams after themselves, meaning Guangzhou Evergrande changed its name to Guangzhou Football Club.
Evergrande was already in financial trouble at that time. In 2021, they debt arrears The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated China’s wider housing crisis.
The company filed for bankruptcy in 2022, plunging Guangzhou into crisis. Their ambitious stadium plans were scrapped, players were sold and they were eventually relegated later that year.
After narrowly missing out on promotion for the 2024 season, Guangzhou have been denied participation in the upcoming season due to ongoing financial issues.
Yet the club still wants to exist in some form.
“We regret that this was not successful and offer our sincerest apologies to the fans and people from all walks of life who support the club,” Guangzhou said in a statement.
“We will not change our original intentions and will do our best to deal with the aftermath and support the development of Chinese football and Guangdong and Guangzhou football.”
