Guangzhou FC, once China’s leading professional football club and a symbol of the country’s sporting aspirations, has been excluded from the national league after a long saga related to the collapse of developer China Evergrande, which bought the team in 2010.
The club — which won eight domestic league titles from 2011 to 2019, topped the Asian Champions League twice and attracted the likes of Brazilian Robinho and Italian coach Marcello Lippi — was unable to meet the league’s financial requirements.
In a statement that named Guangzhou and two other ineligible clubs — the Cangzhou Mighty Lions and the Hunan Billows — the Chinese Football Association cited salary delays and debt-related problems.
Guangzhou’s ineligibility is the latest blow to Chinese football, which President Xi Jinping sought to develop when he came to power in 2012. In recent years, the sport has faced corruption scandals and financial problems at the companies that support the teams.
Guangzhou FC, formerly called Guangzhou Evergrande, on Monday blamed its “historical debt burden” and “insufficient funds” to deal with problems. “To everyone who was concerned and supported the club, we express our sincere apologies,” the team said in a statement.
Following its purchase by developer Evergrande in 2010, the club embarked on a spending spree that included a series of big-name signings, echoing the boom years of China’s vast and heavily indebted real estate sector. A number of other major construction companies also had teams named after them.
But the failure of its majority owner at the end of 2021 derailed the club’s plans for a new 12 billion renminbi ($1.6 billion) stadium in southern China’s Guangzhou, mooted for to be one of the biggest in the world, and relegated the club to the second division of the Chinese league.
In early 2021, the club removed Evergrande from its name under a new rule prohibiting the use of company names for football teams. In its most recent annual report, for the year 2022, Evergrande did not mention the club except to state that it had returned the rights to use the stadium’s land to Guangzhou authorities.
Evergrande, with more than US$300 billion (R$1.8 trillion) in liabilities in 2022, has frantically sought to offload non-core assets following its default on international debt at the end of 2021. Chinese authorities have been focused on making the company completes unfinished housing projects.
The football club was a major focus for Evergrande founder Hui Ka Yan, previously China’s richest man, who is under investigation following the collapse of his company.
Evergrande invested 1.9 billion renminbi to build the Evergrande Football School, one of the largest residential football academies in the world, with the help of Real Madrid coaches in 2012, state media reported at the time.
Guangzhou FC’s difficulties follow the dissolution of Jiangsu FC in 2021 by its owner Suning Appliance Group, also due to financial problems. Suning, which until last May controlled Inter Milan, was affected by an investment in an Evergrande subsidiary that was not listed.
Corruption issues also plague the country’s football league. Last September, the Chinese Football Association banned 43 people for life after an investigation uncovered match-fixing.
