League restart mystery in shadow of epidemic
There are many different opinions and a lack of clarity on when the 2022 Chinese Super League season will resume. The pre-season fiascoes have continued to fester, especially the arbitration dispute over unpaid player salaries. The recent news that the Football Association (FA) has issued a document temporarily lifting the transfer ban on three teams in the Chinese Super League and the Chinese First Division has raised questions about the FA's decision. However, what is the real meaning of this decision?
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Behind the "changing of the rules"
April 21, the network circulated a notice issued by the Competition Department of the Football Association, said the temporary lifting of the Wuhan team, Chongqing team and Zibo Cuju team transfer ban news. To confirm the authenticity of the news, also attached a screenshot of the Football Association Competition Department mail. Although the content of the notice is true, but the situation behind is little known. Simply regard the FA decision-making as a change in the morning, seems to be too one-sided, which actually reflects the problem of information asymmetry.
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In the notice, it is mentioned that "three clubs have written to request a stay of execution of the FA's sanction of 'prohibiting the registration of new players'", which can be easily misinterpreted as a request from only three clubs, and then the FA will be lenient. Combined with the phenomenon of wage arrears prevalent in Chinese soccer, in such a serious situation of wage arrears, why still allow the signing of new players? As a result, the conclusion that "the rules of the Football Association have changed over time and the policy has become a piece of paper" has been reached.
But the fact is that outsiders may not know or understand that the three clubs submitted a detailed set of proposals to deal with the problem at the same time as requesting a stay of execution. And this set of proposals, as a contract between the FA and the clubs, may be inconvenient to publicize.
First of all, the disciplinary order issued by the Football Association (FA) to "prohibit the registration of new players" is in response to a previous arbitration case decided by the Arbitration Committee of the FA and the implementation of fines in the case, and has nothing to do with the large-scale unpaid wages that are occurring at present. In short, it is an old debt.
Take Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic as an example, the club is involved in two old cases in 2021. The club has reached a settlement with the players involved in the "old case one" and signed an agreement; it has communicated with the club involved in the "old case two" and put forward a treatment plan, promising to pay all the money owed in a lump sum before July 31 this year. In the request submitted to the Federation, the settlement agreement reached at that time was also submitted.
Then there is Wuhan Changjiang Football Club, which is also involved in two old cases from last year, including a judgment between players and coaches over unpaid wages and a transfer judgment with another club in China. The Wuhan club has made a clear commitment to pay all arrears by July 31 this year.
The Chinese League One club Zibo Cuju, on the other hand, is involved in an old case involving three players from last year. Along with the request, the club has outlined a detailed repayment program as well as a clear timeframe, including three phases and three payments, and has promised to pay all the money owed before July 31st.
Not only that, these three clubs submitted their repayment proposals with a clear statement that they will accept any disciplinary action from the FA once they are unable to fulfill their commitments as promised, including: firstly, new players registered during the original disciplinary period will be banned from the game; resumption of the implementation of the FA's disciplinary decisions; and acceptance of the FA's more stringent disciplinary actions, including league point deductions.
Under these circumstances, the FA made the decision to "temporarily waive the penalty of 'prohibiting the registration of new players' for the three clubs mentioned above" and notified the clubs of the decision after studying the matter.
Pragmatic options for lifting the ban
As we all know, affected by the epidemic, the current impact and influence on Chinese soccer, especially professional soccer, is far beyond the imagination of outsiders. In fact, if we look at the actual situation currently faced by domestic SMEs, we can have a clearer picture of the survival plight of Chinese professional clubs. To a certain extent, because the parent companies or enterprises behind many clubs are also experiencing practical difficulties, it is understandable that there are large-scale wage arrears.
As far as the entire Chinese professional soccer league is concerned, the rules certainly need to be enforced, just as the first and most central element of the entry criteria in previous years was that there should be no unpaid wages. Can this year's Chinese Super League continue to strictly enforce such access rules? Of course. The so-called "law enforcement must be strict", but if strictly enforced, the 16 Chinese Super League clubs, there are only 4 clubs that really do not have any salary arrears in the past season. So, what about the 2022 Chinese Super League? Just let these 4 clubs continue to "play" and let the professional league stop? As for the situation faced by the clubs in the Chinese League A and B, the situation is even more serious.
In this case, the Football Association (FA) and the China Professional Football Federation (CPFF) preparatory group can face up to the reality and take corresponding alternative methods, that is, the clubs themselves are required to submit a detailed program to deal with the arrears of wages, requiring that the arrears of wages be dealt with in phases and batches within 2022, and then take a series of more stringent sanctions such as deduction of points if they are unable to complete the work before the stipulated time nodes, which is said to be a desirable approach. Just like "suspend the implementation of the penalty of 'prohibiting the registration of new players'", it is also a way to deal with the problem in the actual situation, a pragmatic choice.
This is because the epidemic has had a great impact on the entire community and the professions. At this stage, many professions are also suffering from unpaid wages, and in sports, not only soccer clubs, but also clubs like basketball and volleyball are facing the same problem, and the parent companies behind these clubs are also suffering from a huge impact. For Chinese soccer, criticism and supervision are needed, but more importantly, there is a need for feasible and effective ways to deal with the actual problems, so that the entire Chinese professional soccer league can be saved. Chinese soccer doesn't need "people who understand" who can only say "sneering" but can't come up with any substantive solutions!
