The recent cases handled by Wuhan Changjiang Football Salon involve two thorny incidents from last year, a lawsuit between players and coaches over unpaid wages and a transfer dispute with another club. The club has made a clear commitment to repay all outstanding payments in full by July 31 this year.
At the same time, the Chinese League One club Zibo Cuju is also facing a dispute over the unpaid wages of three players from last year. Along with the application, the club also announced a detailed repayment plan and timetable, including payment in three installments and a commitment to clear it by July 31st.
In submitting their repayment plans, the three clubs also made it clear that if they were unable to fulfill their commitments by the deadline, they would accept any penalties imposed by the CFA, including: new players registered during the original penalty period would be banned from the game; reinstatement of the CFA's decision to impose penalties; and acceptance of harsher disciplinary penalties from the CFA, such as deduction of points from the league.
Against this background, the CFA decided to "temporarily exempt the above three clubs from the penalty of 'prohibiting the registration of new players'" and issued a notice to the clubs.
②Exemptions from the ban: a pragmatic move
As we all know, affected by the epidemic, Chinese soccer, especially professional soccer, has suffered far more than the outside world can imagine. In fact, just from the current plight of domestic SMEs, we can see how difficult it is for professional clubs in China to survive. To a certain extent, the emergence of large-scale wage arrears is also understandable as the parent companies or enterprises of many clubs are also facing practical difficulties.
In the case of Chinese professional soccer as a whole, rules must be enforced, such as the access criteria which clearly state that no salary arrears are allowed. Can this year's Chinese Super League continue to strictly enforce this access rule? Of course. The so-called "law enforcement must be strict", but if it is strictly enforced, only four of the 16 Chinese Super League clubs have actually not owed wages in the past season. So what about the 2022 Chinese Super League? Should we just let these 4 clubs continue to compete and let the professional league come to a halt? As for the situation faced by the Central A and B clubs, the situation is even more serious.
Against this background, the CFA and the CFF preparatory group can face up to the reality and adopt a corresponding workaround, i.e., requiring clubs to submit a detailed plan for dealing with salary arrears, stipulating that the problem of salary arrears will be resolved in phases and batches within 2022. Once this cannot be accomplished within the stipulated time, then more severe penalties such as deduction of points will be taken, which should be a feasible approach. Like the "suspension of the penalty of 'banning the registration of new players'", this is also a way to solve the problem under realistic circumstances, a pragmatic choice.
The epidemic has had a great impact on society as a whole and on all trades and industries. At the current stage, the problem of unpaid wages also exists in many industries, not only limited to soccer clubs, but also sports clubs such as basketball and volleyball are facing the same problem, and the parent companies of these clubs have likewise suffered a great impact. For the current Chinese soccer, there is a need for criticism and supervision, but more importantly, there is a need for feasible and effective solutions to solve the actual problems in order to save the whole Chinese soccer business. Chinese soccer doesn't need people who can only talk "funny" but can't come up with any substantive solutions!
