By Michael Church
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Against a backdrop of club closures and continuing COVID-19 restrictions, the Chinese Super League returns on Friday with the competition struggling for relevance after losing the star power that once had it threaten to disrupt the global game.
Long gone are the days when clubs were breaking transfer records to lure leading names, and instead the Chinese Super League is counting the cost of another outfit shuttering its doors just 10 days before the season’s start.
The decision by the owners of Chongqing Athletic to dissolve the club last week due to mounting debts echoed the move a year earlier by the Suning Group to wind up then-champions Jiangsu FC soon after claiming their first Chinese Super League crown.
Chongqing’s closure comes ahead of a season where the league will expand from 16 to 18 teams, but any hope that the growth of the country’s top flight is a sign of positivity would be misplaced.
Teams have been forced to prepare for this weekend’s kickoff under quarantine conditions as they go into biosecure centralised venues in Haikou, Dalian and Meizhou for the first phase, which will run until July 12.
The high-profile foreign players and coaches who once fuelled global interest in the league are now largely absent, driven away by financial difficulties at once-rich clubs and the desire to avoid China’s zero-COVID policies.
Clubs that were previously awash with cash due to their backing by private enterprise – and in particular the once-booming property development sector – have struggled and, as a result, the league has lost its lustre.
Eight-time champions Guangzhou FC will field a squad made up largely of local players after cancelling the contracts of their Brazilian contingent late last year due to financial difficulties for owners China Evergrande.
Other previously big-spending clubs have also been hit hard, to leave reigning champions Shandong Taishan and 2018 title winners Shanghai Port the favourites for this year’s crown.
Shandong, whose former Manchester United midfielder Marouane Fellaini is one of the few well-known foreigners to remain in the league, take on newly promoted Zhejiang FC on the opening day looking to claim back-to-back titles for the first time.
Doubts, meanwhile, have surfaced over the availability of Shanghai Port’s Brazilian Oscar, with the former Chelsea attacker unlikely be ready for the start of the season due to his expected late arrival in China from Europe.
(Reporting by Michael Church in Hong Kong, Editing by Christian Radnedge)
