On January 5, it was reported by the Oriental Sports Daily that at present, many teams in China A are facing difficulties in survival. I’m afraid the prospect is not optimistic, and they are likely to face the fate of dissolution.
In the end of 2022, Shaanxi Chang’an Athletic Team, which ranked fifth even after 6 points were deducted, will be disbanded helplessly and will never wait for the 2023 season if they cannot solve the problem of salary arrears that has plagued them for two years. Shaanxi Chang’an Sports Club also put the hope of “breaking the situation” on the share reform. For Chang’an Athletics, which has still failed to solve the problem of salary arrears in 2021, it is absolutely an “impossible task” to fill in the “hole” of salary arrears in 2022 in less than a month.
Shaanxi Chang’an Athletic Club has been prepared for the worst possible situation. In the words of the unnamed senior management of the club, “although the club is going all out, the fund is still extremely difficult. Now it has reached the critical moment of life and death. If the problem of salary arrears cannot be solved, it will face dissolution”.
In China, they are far from the only team facing the same dilemma as Shaanxi Chang’an Athletics. Since the problem of salary arrears was not resolved at the specified time, Sichuan Jiuniu, Heilongjiang Ice City, Zibo Cuju and Jiangxi Beidamen, the four Chinese top teams, were also deducted 6 points in the 2022 season.
More worrying than these teams that participated in the China First League last year are the three teams that “fell” from the Chinese Super League to China First League. As the Guangzhou Football Association was punished due to the “match fixing case”, the Guangzhou team, which had no “endorsement” from its parent company, may not even be able to get the chance to be entrusted, becoming a real “abandoned child”. As for the future prospects of this team, in the words of insiders, “the good news is that Evergrande has no plan to disband the bad news is that there is no plan to disband the team”.
Compared with Guangzhou Team and Hebei Team, which ended the whole 2022 season with negative points, the prospect of Wuhan Changjiang Team, which also fell from the Chinese Super League to the Chinese First Division, is undoubtedly more complicated or less optimistic. According to the analysis of local media in Wuhan, at the moment of receiving the penalty of point deduction from the Chinese Football Association, the senior management of Wuhan Changjiang Club may have been prepared to accept all the results, including demotion and even dissolution.
In fact, even if the worst result of disbandment is avoided, for Wuhan Changjiang and Hebei teams, which are deeply involved in the whirlpool of salary arrears, if they can’t pay off the salary arrears on time, they may have to face the result of “demotion” again to play in China B – under the circumstances of many variables, whether the Chinese league A can continue to retain the complete organizational system of 18 teams in the new season, I am afraid it is difficult to have an accurate answer in a short time.