Shanxi FA responds to local club's accusation

BEIJING - Shanxi Football Association has issued a statement in response to Shanxi Longjin FC's blame, insisting that efforts had been made to save the local club.

Shanxi Longjin FC on Thursday announced their withdrawal from Chinese professional football leagues after being thrown out of the third-tier league for being unable to pay a required deposit of 600,000 yuan.

The club blamed their pullout on Shanxi FA's failure to issue a written guarantee for them.

"When in dire need of help, we could not even get a written guarantee. It says everything," the club said in a statement.

In response, Shanxi FC said in a statement they had tried to contact the club to offer help, but in vain.

The Shanxi football governing body said they helped the club to get money and made the written guarantee ready last Thursday, but before issuing it they needed to know the club's sustainability. They made repeated calls to the club on Sunday, but none of them was picked up.

Shanxi FA said in 2020 and 2021, the local government aided Shanxi Longjin FC with a total of six million yuan in support of the club's development.

The Shanxi club has complained about a lack of backing from the local government.

"We had hoped for nothing more than friendly treatment and genuine support from the local governing body," it said in its statement on Thursday.

"But in reality what we got were cold shoulders and an unspeakably bad environment," the statement added.