Liaoning FC players seek authorities backing to get overdue pay

BEIJING - Liaoning Hongyun players have pleaded with local sports authorities to intervene to get the overdue pay from their bankruptcy-threatened club, a Chinese newspaper reported on Thursday.

Several Liaoning FC players paid a visit to the Liaoning Sports Bureau on Tuesday morning in a futile attempt to have a talk with the bureau chief, who was then not available, according to a Guangzhou-based Soccer News report.

"We deserve to get the money we made with blood and sweat. We hope the Liaoning bureau can do us justice and solve the issue of our unpaid salaries," an unnamed player was quoted as saying.

Liaoning Hongyun club captain Sang Yifei revealed last month that he and his teammates received no salaries for the 2019 season.

"The players got no salaries for the whole year, but it is true that the club had no money to give us," he wrote on Weibo, China's Twitter-like social media platform.

The Liaoning players urged the Chinese Football Association (CFA) to rule on the future of the debt-ridden Liaoning FC as soon as possible.

The future of the second-tier club was thrown into uncertainty since last month after several of its players accused the club of forging eight players signature on a document submitted to the Chinese Football Association to confirm full payment of employee wages and bonuses for 2019.

"We notified the CFA about the forgery and requested it to take action," a Liaoning player said.

"But it seemed that our cries went unheeded. The CFA should have given us a reply within one week after being notified, and until now we received nothing," he said.

"We need to know if the club can hold on or not. We will make our decisions on the CFA's ruling," he added

The Shenyang-based Liaoning club sent the document to the CFA before the February 3 deadline, with nine other clubs disqualified from taking part in the upcoming 2020 season for failing to do so.

The CFA announced last October that any club's failure to pay salaries of players, coaches and staff on time would result in disqualification from this season's league.