Chinese Super League

[Keith Putnam]

I suppose for now this is a bit of a placeholder thread, because I doubt many of us will be following the CSL soon.

But, the CSL is clearly pursuing a hyper-aggressive strategy of offering outrageous wages and transfer fees to every available "name" player and manager in the world in an effort to build a world audience incredibly quickly. The money flying around may be unsustainable, but then again the Chinese state is willing to throw absurd amounts of money at the various sectors of their economy that they want to bootstrap. That often leads to massive ghost towns which exist solely to prop up the construction business and artificially inflate GDP, but regardless, this is SOP.

Mike Goodman has been writing about the larger political and footballing implications of the CSL's aggressiveness for ESPN, which you can read if you subscribe to Insider.
http://www.espnfc.us/albion-rovers/...nsfer-represents-a-shift-in-world-football-fc

 

[shane88]

Tevez is suppose to be on his way their from Boca, going to have the highest wage in Football on a estimated £625,000 per week

 

[Fantazma]

this is nothing new...everyone remembers last year ? similar articles came out. We know the gov is backing this, question is for how long? If anything i think infrastructure and youth should be the focus.

 

[shane88]

this is nothing new...everyone remembers last year ? similar articles came out. We know the gov is backing this, quetion is for how long. If anything i think infrastructure and youth should be the focus.

Agreed they definitely ambitious though, it's just backing it up with those promises, I can see more well travelled players going their

 

[NYCFC_Dan]

Tevez is suppose to be on his way their from Boca, going to have the highest wage in Football on a estimated £625,000 per week

Pretty sure I signed Messi for more than that in FUT.

 

[BxLio91]

Not to burst the bubble but it's coming.

 

[Shawn Ryu]

And the quality is still garbage.

 

[Keith Putnam]

If anything i think infrastructure and youth should be the focus.

It should be, but a short-term strategy of getting butts in seats with big names is smart (and obvious). Sounds like how a team we're all pretty familiar with got their start...

 

[JayH]

ADM talk.

http://www.espnfc.com/story/3027145...et-squad-space-needed-for-angel-di-maria-deal

 

[LionNYC]

If you haven't read Bloomberg's pessimistic guide to 2017, I can see the CSL taking a massive hit next year.

It's basically a glorified NASL.

 

[NYCFC_Dan]

Apparently they're trying to bring him in.

https://twitter.com/x/status/814195729514299394

 

[Vito]

https://twitter.com/x/status/814289667898167296

https://twitter.com/x/status/814290739991560194

 

[NickA]

I would have loved to have Tevez here. Can't come close to competing with those numbers though. I'd argue if he's even worth half that, but you're worth what someone's willing to pay.

 

[Ulrich]

https://twitter.com/x/status/814289667898167296

https://twitter.com/x/status/814290739991560194

And that's in pounds, not dollars!!! Good for him, that's a never to be passed on figure. But sheesh, the Chinese are blowing the bubble up pretty big.

 

[jerseyhotspur]

good luck with the CSL honoring these high salaries and actually paying them out in full over the course of the contracts.

and you can only last so long behind propped up by the PRC (hopefully they're not just printing money).

 

[BossNYC]

LOL

Honestly, I'm glad CSL is blowing cash like this.

 

[Fantazma]

It should be, but a short-term strategy of getting butts in seats with big names is smart (and obvious). Sounds like how a team we're all pretty familiar with got their start...

difference is that the government is funding i think most of these splashy moves. In like two years if they dont feel like it they will stop funding and then the game over there has nothing left. At least here its not the gov spending massive amounts ( maybe taxpayer money in stadiums) and just now it seems we are getting the idea that we should invest in youth development....still long way to go though.

 

[Falastur]

difference is that the government is funding i think most of these splashy moves. In like two years if they dont feel like it they will stop funding and then the game over there has nothing left. At least here its not the gov spending massive amounts ( maybe taxpayer money in stadiums) and just now it seems we are getting the idea that we should invest in youth development....still long way to go though.

Thing is, I don't think this is a flash-in-the-pan move from the Chinese government which they are likely to either get bored of or change their minds on later. That's not to say that the business model is going to prove itself sustainable just because the government will always bail teams out, nor that Chinese football isn't heading for a bump in the future, but if it is heading for a bump then the bump I see is the kind where the government starts imposing stricter conditions on the types of deal they are willing to sanction while still honouring the deals they already did.

It's possible that the sport could implode over these contracts or if the bubble bursts by failing to pave the way for the TV and sponsorship revenue that they clearly are hoping will follow (and to an extent already is), but if either of them happen then if anything it will only prove that the government was never as involved as we are claiming anyway.

The fact of the matter is that, of late, China has become very concerned about its image and of being seen as the equal of the West in every category. One of those categories is football, and particularly that the Chinese government feels humiliated about how the world's most populous state and fastest growing economy still seems utterly incapable of making an impact in the world's biggest sport. They've already implemented a number of serious steps to rectify this, including making football a compulsory lesson in all schools and they've got plans to have 70,000 pitches and 20,000 academies/"schools of football" set up in only four years' time. Add on top of this that China is - of course - a Communist government and therefore is far more capable of adhering to long-term strategic planning the likes of which Western-style democracies aren't really capable of, what with their frequent changes in government and the need to base policies and budgets around what will get them elected and keep them popular.

I'm by no means saying that China is destined to overtake the world of football and that we can all look forward to them winning every World Cup from 2030 and the CSL being the world's greatest league. There's still every reason to believe that the CSL will peak at being a "second tier" league, and that these huge contracts will be a short term thing to build publicity. However, I think that making any claims that the Chinese government treats the growth of the CSL as a bit of a fun side-project until they get bored or distracted are a bit near-sighted.

 

[Fantazma]

Thing is, I don't think this is a flash-in-the-pan move from the Chinese government which they are likely to either get bored of or change their minds on later. That's not to say that the business model is going to prove itself sustainable just because the government will always bail teams out, nor that Chinese football isn't heading for a bump in the future, but if it is heading for a bump then the bump I see is the kind where the government starts imposing stricter conditions on the types of deal they are willing to sanction while still honouring the deals they already did.

It's possible that the sport could implode over these contracts or if the bubble bursts by failing to pave the way for the TV and sponsorship revenue that they clearly are hoping will follow (and to an extent already is), but if either of them happen then if anything it will only prove that the government was never as involved as we are claiming anyway.

The fact of the matter is that, of late, China has become very concerned about its image and of being seen as the equal of the West in every category. One of those categories is football, and particularly that the Chinese government feels humiliated about how the world's most populous state and fastest growing economy still seems utterly incapable of making an impact in the world's biggest sport. They've already implemented a number of serious steps to rectify this, including making football a compulsory lesson in all schools and they've got plans to have 70,000 pitches and 20,000 academies/"schools of football" set up in only four years' time. Add on top of this that China is - of course - a Communist government and therefore is far more capable of adhering to long-term strategic planning the likes of which Western-style democracies aren't really capable of, what with their frequent changes in government and the need to base policies and budgets around what will get them elected and keep them popular.

I'm by no means saying that China is destined to overtake the world of football and that we can all look forward to them winning every World Cup from 2030 and the CSL being the world's greatest league. There's still every reason to believe that the CSL will peak at being a "second tier" league, and that these huge contracts will be a short term thing to build publicity. However, I think that making any claims that the Chinese government treats the growth of the CSL as a bit of a fun side-project until they get bored or distracted are a bit near-sighted.

good analysis....still, its not so much as "fun project" but more of the lines of hey we spent billions on this and having no results ( say for example no Asian cup for their national team or constant wins in asian champions league, or even making the world cup) then will they pull out? its a serious investment....but there are still limits to it....if in the next couple of years their economy starts to show more signs of weakness what stops them from pulling the plug on this. and trying to salvage other sectors of their economy ( city infrastructure/ manuacturing or whatever other sectors they focus on)

also one criticism on the the whole academy investment that i have read is that the majority of the kids who are in these academies are well off so the player pool is not so great, plus with many over there the culture is still that parents dont see being a pro players as sustainable job.

It will be interesting to see what happens in next few years but i do think if there are no results with this there is nothing stopping them from pulling plug.

 

[Falastur]

good analysis....still, its not so much as "fun project" but more of the lines of hey we spent billions on this and having no results ( say for example no Asian cup for their national team or constant wins in asian champions league, or even making the world cup) then will they pull out? its a serious investment....but there are still limits to it....if in the next couple of years their economy starts to show more signs of weakness what stops them from pulling the plug on this. and trying to salvage other sectors of their economy ( city infrastructure/ manuacturing or whatever other sectors they focus on)

also one criticism on the the whole academy investment that i have read is that the majority of the kids who are in these academies are well off so the player pool is not so great, plus with many over there the culture is still that parents dont see being a pro players as sustainable job.

It will be interesting to see what happens in next few years but i do think if there are no results with this there is nothing stopping them from pulling plug.

I think the Chinese are looking at it in a semi-realistic fashion, to be fair. They understand the reasons that they are poor performers in world football; they aren't simply stamping their feet and going "why is this not working?" I think they understand that there is a definite path to follow to make the national team perform better, and that goes something along the lines of:

Raise profile of national league
Get more money into national league due to raised profile
See better continental performances due to the extra money
Create strong national academy system based on the enhanced power and experience of the clubs in the national league
Get better players coming through due to the national academy system
See improved international results when those players get to peak ability

I can't see them throwing the toys out of the pram until they feel the system has had time to work its magic. As said, my major impression of the future of these high-money buys is that they will wait until they believe that the new TV/sponsorship money has given the league enough cash to make it self-sufficient before stepping back from funding things. I don't think they'll base that decision off improved continental performances, and in fact I believe that - if the league succeeds in getting in the big money they clearly believe it can - then they'll slowly withdraw their funding before you start seeing noticeably improved continental results anyway (assuming that a Drogba or Tevez or Oscar don't manage to start single-handedly earning their teams CL titles).