Chinese football in doldrums as clubs struggle and World Cup dream fades
The Chinese Super League has stopped prioritizing the national team, but so far it has been to no avail, and Guangzhou is the newest big club.
In China, it did not go unnoticed that Rafael Benitez led Everton to a point at Manchester United on Saturday and a day later Bruno Genesis defeated Paris Saint-Germain. In January, they were working in the Chinese Super League, but given what happened in the country this year, it seems that life has passed before.
It would be surprising if either European coach regretted their departure as these are troubled times for football in China. When Antonio Conte called the country's rise dangerously for football as Chelsea prepared to sell Oscar to Shanghai for 50m in December 2016 one of many deals that meant the league spent more than 300m in that winter window and become one of the most-talked-about competitions in the world he was right but just not in the way he meant.
Oscar is still there but almost all the other stars and big-name coaches have gone. Authorities, alarmed at the money leaving the country, introduced ‘transfer taxes’ and increasingly tight salary caps. It was not enough to save some clubs. Jiangsu FC won the first championship last November but was out of business three months later with their owner, Suning, which also owns Internazionale, pulling the plug. Last year, Tianjin Tianhai ceased to exist.
Even more seriously, there is trouble at Guangzhou FC, winners of eight championships in the past decade and the club that started all the big-spending a decade ago. The majority owner Evergrande, a giant property developer, has debts of £225bn, an astonishing number that would also be spelled out fully in brackets on the BBC’s old video printer. Last week, the coach, Fabio Cannavaro, left, and if the champions can go bust and the biggest club in China, and arguably Asia, can teeter on the edge then any can. There is an expectation things are going to get worse before they get better.
There is not much respite on the international stage with the national team and the Chinese Football Association’s obsession with returning to the World Cup for the first time since a debut appearance in 2002 making things worse. Fans in Europe who complain about international breaks getting into the way of the club game should spare a thought for counterparts in east Asia. The Chinese Super League has been suspended from August to December to give the national team the best possible chance, or so the thinking goes, to qualify for the 2022 World Cup.
With no games, revenue, or media coverage, the league is in limbo and if China were looking like qualifying for the World Cup then fans maybe would not mind so much, but that is not the case.
The final round of qualifications started in September. Twelve teams are split into two groups of six with the top two from each get automatic berths in Qatar. With two games gone, China has zero points and zero goals. Defeats against Vietnam on Thursday and Saudi Arabia five days later would effectively confirm the inevitable. Automatic qualification is already almost out of the question.
China is not good enough to finish above Japan or overturn the six-point deficit to Saudi Arabia or Australia. Even finishing third and going through two play-offs, first in Asia and then against a team from another confederation, usually, Concacaf is a long shot.
