The 2021 season of the Chinese Super League came to a hasty end.
It was a drastically cut season, with a broken schedule, the elimination of the home-and-home format, and preparations for the national team for the World Qualifiers making the entire season fragmented.
Under the influence of multiple factors such as the epidemic, many clubs have fallen into operational difficulties, resulting in the departure of foreign managers and high-level foreign aid, many teams are facing a crisis of salary arrears, the league's competitive level and spectatorship is deteriorating, and the attractiveness of the Chinese Super League and the brand value of the continued decline. The professional league has entered its 27th year, but it is facing a historic choice of survival and development.
Making way for national team, league in tatters
The 2021 season of the Chinese Super League became the first cross-over season since the professionalization of Chinese soccer. It began on April 20, 2021 and ended on January 4, 2022, with a nearly two-month hiatus from May 17 to July 15, 2021, and then a nearly four-month suspension from August 15 to December 12, setting a record for the longest suspension of the league. Previously, the 2018 Premier League had been suspended for 58 days during the World Cup in Russia.
Shandong celebrates winning the championship
The FA abandoned the knockout system of the second phase of last season, reducing the original 30-round schedule to 22 rounds. The entire season was suspended for a whopping 176 days, a rarity in world soccer. All this is for the national team to impact the 2022 Qatar World Cup. However, with the national team's World Cup dream shattered, the league made great sacrifices for this also came to naught.
The most direct consequence of the two suspensions of the Chinese Super League is that the battle line has been lengthened, and all the teams have experienced two "devil" schedules, and the players are facing a great test of physical and mental capacity. The first "devil" schedule for July 19, 2021 to August 15, 27 days 9 games; the second for December 12, 2021 to January 4, 2022, 24 days 8 games.
The two "devil" schedule is the rhythm of three days a game. On the one hand, fatigue tests the depth of each team's bench, and on the other hand, it also increases the risk of player injuries, and fatigue becomes the only footnote under the intensive schedule. Coupled with the wave of foreign aid departures, the league's level of competition and spectacle declined across the board.
Compared to the league to make way for the national team, the face of the image of the foreign war, the three Chinese Super League teams Shanghai Harbour, Guangzhou and Beijing Guoan team chose to give up: Shanghai Harbour team in the play-offs out of the game, to the reserve team and ladder team to play in the Guangzhou team and the Beijing Guoan team team team group stage record of 6 losses, 1 draw and 5 losses, respectively, to create the worst record of the Chinese team in the AFC Champions League, leading to the direct result of 2023 season of the Super League Champions League place! From the previous seasons of "3 + 1" reduced to "2 + 2" (the league champion and the AFC Cup champion to get a seat in the main round, the second and third in the league to play in the play-offs).
Operational woes, the Chinese Super League all the way to the bottom
Early last year, just won the 2020 season of the Chinese Super League Championship of Jiangsu Suning Club officially announced the dissolution of the first year of the first year of a team active in the league disappeared overnight, the most fundamental reason is the high capital investment "gold dollar soccer" is not regulated and standardized. Since then, a number of clubs into survival difficulties. Under the influence of many factors, such as the impact of the epidemic, many clubs' parent companies are no longer able to provide financial support.
The abolition of the home-and-away system for two consecutive seasons and the implementation of a centralized match system, coupled with the implementation of neutral name reforms by clubs as well as salary restrictions and input limitations, have also greatly damaged the image of the Chinese Super League, with its brand value dropping off a cliff. The exodus of famous foreigners has led to the league's attention and attraction not being what it used to be. At the end of the year 2021, the Chinese Super League winter has arrived, but whether it can usher in the spring return is unknown!
Along with the operation in trouble, the Chinese Super League clubs frequently broke out salary arrears crisis. It is reported that the entire Chinese super league as many as 13 teams have salary arrears, in the second phase before the start of there are still a number of teams in arrears of salary and bonus behavior. Hebei team has been more than a year without pay, the second phase of the transportation costs are staff, players from their own pockets to cobble together, the club has even been unable to pay the electricity bill.
Hebei skipper Kim Jong-woo
Against Shandong Taishan team had as many as 12 starters absent on leave, Hebei team manager Jin Jongfu for the team's second stage of the winless record, can only helplessly said "players too poor". The Qingdao team, which owes wages for 8 months, suffered 11 consecutive defeats in the league, and has long been uninterested in the game.
Chinese Super League clubs are struggling, with unpaid wages triggering an exodus of famous foreign aiders. After the end of last season's Super League, Shanghai Harbour's Hulk, Dalian People's Hamsik, Shandong Taishan's Pele, Wuhan's Evra and other big-name foreign aiders have left the team. Jiangsu Suning team disbanded, Teixeira, Eder also packaged to go.
By the middle of the league, Beijing Guoan's Augusto, Bieira and Bakambu; Shanghai Harbour's Arnautovic; and Guangzhou's Paulinho and Talisca had left en masse again. The second stage failed to return to the team of Guangzhou City's Dembele, Guilherme and others are also likely to leave next season. Nowadays, only Oscar, Fellaini and Quintero are left in the Chinese Super League, a handful of big-name foreigners, and the stars are dimming across the league.
Among the naturalized players, Ackerson, Gallart, Allan and Lo Guofu have returned to Brazil after their release, and with the current climate of the league, the chances of them rejoining the Chinese Super League are slim to none.
According to statistics, foreign aiders who left the Chinese Super League this season have reached 29, while only 16 foreign aiders were introduced. In addition to the Shenzhen team in last season finalized Jintro, this season's king of the bidding is Shandong Taishan team's South Korean foreign aid Sun Junhao, the transfer fee is only 4.5 million euros, even less than one-tenth of the peak period of the Chinese Super League. 2016, Shanghai Harbour team had 60 million euros from Chelsea to introduce Oscar, creating a record of the Chinese Super League reinforcement.
Van Bronckhorst bids farewell to Canton City team
In the past, the Chinese Super League was full of famous coaches, but now the big name coaches are also waving their hands away. Before the season, Van Bronckhorst and Guangzhou City terminated their contracts, and Pereira bid farewell to Shanghai Harbor. In the middle of the season, Guangzhou's Cannavaro team chose to leave, and Beijing Guoan's Bilic is about to say goodbye to the Chinese Super League. The departure of famous and powerful players signaled the end of an era in the Chinese Super League.
The second phase of this season's Super League barely lasted until the final whistle in a sea of low-pressure, how to solve the problem of team survival in the future? How will the clubs' shareholding reform be pushed forward? How many of the 16 teams in the Chinese Super League will be able to stay in the league next season? Everything is still up in the air.
As the league cools down, can the locals carry the load?
In the context of the gradual cooling of the league, the departure of a large number of famous coaches and super foreign aid, local coaches in the Chinese Super League stage has gained the space to play. The two consecutive "devil" fixtures have tested the depth of each team's bench and youth training system. The large-scale departure of foreign aid, so that the "all Chinese class" has become the starting norm for each team, so that more local young players get the opportunity to accumulate experience.
Shandong Taishan won the Chinese Super League title again after 11 years, and Hao Wei became the first local coach in the Chinese Super League in 14 years to lead the team to win the league title in its entirety. At the end of the Chinese Super League prosperity, Shandong Taishan team with internal and external reinforcements of the overall thickness and relatively strong talent reserves to the last laugh.
Hao Wei becomes the first local coach to lead a team to a league title in its entirety in the Chinese Super League in 14 years
Of the 23 players who played for Shandong Taishan, 17 were homegrown, with the club's youth system contributing 11. Of the 21 goals scored by local players, 18 were scored by players from the Luneng Football Academy, including 10 by Guo Tianyu, three by Wu Xinghan, two by Duan Liuyu, and one each by Zheng Zheng, Qi Tianyu and Liu Yang, who span five age groups from 1989 to 1999.
As the saying goes, the train runs fast, but also the head of the train. Among the local coaches, Changchun Yatai's head coach Chen Yang is the most representative. Changchun Yatai team to promote the identity of the league's biggest dark horse, Chen Yang credit. He adheres to a low-key and pragmatic style of coaching, holding the banner of defensive counter-attack in the league, unique, but also discerning the introduction of the three major foreign aid Junior, Eric and Okore, so that the team's offensive and defensive strength to enhance a few notches, and ultimately get the seat of the AFC Champions League next season.
In addition, Wuhan team in Li Xiaopeng as national football coach, Li Jinyu led the team ahead of the relegation; Yu Genwei led his hometown team Tianjin team out of the relegation quagmire; Mao Yi Jun led Shanghai Shenhua team smooth transition. However, we should also see that the local coaches seem to have a rising trend in this season, but more because of the league contraction, the result of the famous marshals after the departure.
At a time when Guangzhou's naturalized players left the team and its operation was in trouble, the club did not disorganize itself and showed unprecedented cohesion and strong fighting power in the final stage. And after nearly 10 years of development, Evergrande Football School has also cultivated a number of talents that can be made, emerging new stars such as Ling Jie and Tan Kaiyuan, and gradually have a tendency to take over.
The current downturn in the Chinese Super League (CSL) has objectively given local coaches and young players the opportunity to come to the forefront, signaling a major change in the future team building system of the CSL powers. However, whether local managers can hold up the Chinese Super League must still be a question mark. Any country or region that wants to have a hot soccer league and improve the level of the league can't afford to be short of capital investment and star play.
Without high-level coaches and foreign aid, it is difficult to guarantee the competitive level and brand value of the league. Whether local coaches and local youth players can reshape the Chinese Super League into a new fiery league after a major change in the development mode of the Chinese Super League is yet to be tested by time.
