FA chief vows to take China to World Cup final qualifying round

THE LEAGUE

Jiangsu Suning won its first-ever top league title last year with victory over Guangzhou Evergrande in a playoff in November, but owner Suning announced it would withdraw funding from the Nanjing-based club at the end of February this year. After Suning failed to find a new investor to take over the club's debt, Jiangsu FC was left off the list of clubs approved by the league for the new season.

Chen, formerly president of Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG), which owns Chinese Super League side Shanghai Port FC, admitted that the vanishing of Jiangsu FC was "a huge shock" and led to extensive discussions.

"In the past few years, more than 10 football clubs have pulled out of professional leagues. What's the reason behind the frequent withdrawal of clubs? And how can we help the clubs and leagues build a healthy and sustainable model? That's what the CFA has been working on," he said.

"I believe, diversifying club ownership may be one of the most effective ways out."

With a single shareholder, a club is likely to teeter on the verge of collapse and rest with the shareholder's sole decision, while with multiple shareholders, a market-oriented corporate governance structure with a supervisory board and board of directors will be established so that major decisions (like pulling out of the league) must be made through a joint resolution of the shareholders, Chen stressed.

Apart from the proposal of diversifying club ownership, the CFA has already introduced a series of regulations to curb the unsustainable operation model of football clubs in the world's most populous country.

These rules include a limit on club spending, investor capital injection, club losses, and player salaries. For example, the new rules cap annual domestic player salaries at 5 million yuan (about 780,000 US dollars) and foreign player salaries at 3 million euros (23.49 million yuan), causing an exodus of many foreign star players ahead of this season.

Chen admitted that those policies have more or less affected the overall performance of league's games, but it's a good thing for Chinese football in the long run.

"The quality of some games were okay, but I guess some fans were not satisfied with the rest," said the 65-year-old.

"Our policies are not targeted at the elite players, but rather the illusory bubble the league has produced over the past years.

"The bubble will burst sooner or later. The quicker it bursts, the better for Chinese football."

Chen stressed that the CFA wants to remove the almost total reliance on cash injections from big businesses and force clubs to become more sustainable and professional.

"We hope professional clubs can achieve financial balance within three to five years. Only by making ends meet or achieving a substantial return on investment, more investors will then be willing to take part in football," he said.

The CFA chief believes that a key step to help the clubs achieve that goal is the launch of a national football lottery, an initiative that was outlined in the central government's reform plan for the sport.

"Relevant government departments have done a lot of research work on this matter since 2015, but there remain some details to be addressed," said Chen. "For instance, risk control and management, how we can prevent match-fixing as much as possible?"

"I don't know the timetable, but I hope the lottery will be launched as soon as possible."

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, only two-thirds of the CSL games for the 2020 season were played in a bio-secure bubble. For the current season, games are being played in two hub cities - Guangzhou in the south and Suzhou in the east.

"We hope to bring back the home and away league format in the second half of this year. But it depends on the COVID-19 situation," said Chen.