On December 9, the night was low, a report from the South Korean media naver quietly fermented, revealing a soccer secret that can not be ignored: the Chinese Super League teams are facing the test of unpaid wages and financial difficulties, in which the eight champions of the Guangzhou team's situation is particularly grim.
The former Guangzhou Evergrande Football Club, mired in a financial crisis at its parent company, had to make a tough choice: hire 41-year-old former national team player Zheng Zhi (Zheng Zhi) to step in as both a player and temporary acting head coach.
The Guangzhou team's official website officially released the news: "For the remainder of the season, Zheng Zhi will lead the team forward in the dual roles of player and coach." All of this is a stopgap measure taken by the team after the release of the contract with Cannavaro.
Cannavaro's contract was terminated in September for no other reason than that parent company Evergrande was on the verge of bankruptcy and could not afford the Italian coach's expensive salary. In Guangzhou, the problem of salary arrears to players and staff is also becoming more and more prominent. After Cannavaro's departure, the position of the team's head coach did not fall into the hands of the new manager, but was taken over by the team's veteran Zheng Zhi.
This financial predicament in the Chinese Super League is not unique to Guangzhou, as the entire league is going through a turmoil, with most clubs in a predicament of not being able to pay their salaries due to the deteriorating financial situation. Once upon a time, the Chinese Super League attempted to expand its territory by bringing in world-class players and coaches with huge sums of money, only to push the league into an abyss.
New Guangzhou skipper Zheng Zhi, a 1980-born midfielder who has represented the national team in 108 matches, is a veteran of the team. He will reportedly receive no additional salary during his tenure as skipper. Guangzhou have won the AFC Champions League twice, in 2013 and 2015, and eight times since the start of the Chinese Super League.
