From an emerging force to a brutal failure, the rise of football in China imploded as violently as it burst onto the scene.
Severe Covid restrictions, a suffering economy and hasty plans have turned the home of Carlos Tevez, Hulk and Oscar into a graveyard of deserted stadiums and collapsed clubs.
And the bankruptcy may be just a warning to Saudi Arabia, whose own footballing ambitions may attract direct lines to China.
UEFA leaders have suggested the kingdom not to make “similar mistakes” that have spoiled the game in the communist nation.
Football enthusiasts around the world are stunned when Saudi Arabia gains players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema with massive contracts worth millions.
But it arguably feels like enthusiasts have heard all this before, as China once held Saudi Arabia’s position as the next budding football destination.
The dream of Chinese football with an ambitious plan through President Xi Jinping, who madly dreamed of forming a football superpower until 2050.
At the beginning of the XXI century, he saw football as one of the teams to propel the country to the forefront of the economic world.
He sought out China to participate in a World Cup, host the tournament, rank among FIFA’s 20 smartest groups and even, eventually, World Cup champions.
By 2030, the despot needs China’s men’s team to be one of Asia’s top-ranked groups.
Beijing also planned to build 50,000 soccer schools in the next seven years and attract 50 million schoolchildren to the box to create the next generation of soccer players.
The Chinese Super League has responded to Xi’s ambitious aspirations and has become the world’s biggest soccer spender in the 2016-17 winter move window.
He drew attention with the astronomical salaries presented to attract some of the world’s players with the grand goal of forming a football superpower.
He spent £320 million, adding £60 million to keep Chelsea midfielder Oscar out of the Premier League at Shanghai Port F. C.
“At that time, signing Oscar was the dream of many footballers and agents,” Charles Cardoso, president of Águas de Santa Bárbara FC, in São Paulo, Brazil, told The Sun.
“Everyone believed that China was the next big thing in football.
“It’s an absolute frenzy in the play market. Everyone was looking to send their players there because it guaranteed money. “
One transfer, however, has gained more than others.
Carlos Tevez, after leaving Juventus, submitted a contract through Shanghai Shenhua in 2016 worth £650,000 a week.
That equates to the former Manchester United and City striker gaining a pound consistent with second place.
Fast forward to last year, and the optimism of 2016 has disappeared almost as temporarily as it appeared.
Instead, China ended up with a crumbling formula, as Xi’s vision of football seemed to exhaust China’s cash to cash it in.
“Everyone thought it would be a gold mine, but they hadn’t planned it well,” agent Cardoso said.
“They were making absurd plans, but in reality, they didn’t have the ability to take care of everything. “
More than a decade after Xi announced his dream, the country is now a graveyard of deserted stadiums and memories of what was once the home of the world’s highest-paid players.
The men’s national team failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, falling to 78th place in the FIFA rankings, and the women’s team failed to finish in the top ten.
Chinese Super League clubs withdrew left, right and center.
Guangzhou Evergrande, the most successful team in Chinese Super League history, has racked up a debt of £240 billion, raising serious questions about the club’s future.
Thanks to poor planning, lack of visibility, currency crisis and pandemic, football has evaporated from China.
Stories have surfaced of players not getting paid, some even sending home with their own team to cover themselves in an effort to charge more.
Top foreign footballers such as Renato Augusto and Fernando Martins had their contracts terminated and complained to FIFA about the bills that arrived.
His Brazilian compatriot Miranda lost £7. 5m when China’s Suning retired.
Without the offer of Champions League football or domestic trophies in Europe’s top five leagues, CSL clubs ended up paying too much to players towards the end of their careers, like Tevez.
“China has evolved in a way without much infrastructure and without a monetary organization,” Cardoso said.
“The Chinese believed that the country’s entire football market would succeed because of China’s monetary scenario and its economic presence on a global scale.
“But that’s not all that promises good fortune in football. It also requires proper control and making plans.
“The Chinese have made their monetary scenario and forgot to make an organization about how and where to invest.
Cardoso described China’s immediate stance in soccer as “hasty. “
“Football in China gets a lot of investment, but after one season, it stopped because of the lack of visibility,” he said.
“They also had the idea that they were on the right track by signing contracts with the players.
“They targeted provision and forgot about the future.
“Xi Jinping’s idea is not bad, but the challenge came from the other people who begged him.
“These other people had no idea what it would mean to host a World Cup, to let them win one.
“Thanks to poor planning, lack of visibility, currency crisis and the pandemic, football has almost evaporated from China. “
Dr Rob Wilson, a football finance expert at Sheffield Hallam University, told Sportsmail: “They were going to buy 150 years of history.
“What China has committed to do is boost its position as a global football superpower so that a Chinese team can win the World Cup.
“What they’ve shown is that it’s just not imaginable to do that. “
In its heyday, China embarked on stadium construction, as the area to build the president’s football schools attracted genuine real estate companies.
The developers made actions in groups to have access to the acquisition of the land destined to be developed.
Most of them put their names on their clubs to increase exposure; However, shiny new stadiums and big sponsors were synonymous with visibility and popularity.
Everyone thinks it would be a gold mine, they hadn’t planned it well
In 2021, football in China is still largely played in empty stadiums, and even billionaire stars couldn’t attract enough enthusiasts to justify the money spent.
In April 2020, Chinese assets Evergrande opened a 100,000-seat, £1. 4 billion stadium in Guangzhou.
President Xu Jiayin announced that it would be “a new world-class landmark comparable to the Sydney and Dubai Burj Khalifa Opera House, and is also a vital symbol of the globalization of Chinese football. “
But the half-finished stadium and the land it sits on were seized through the government for auction, leaving Evergrande billions in debt.
In May last year, developers were at full steam ahead to build the workers’ stadium; however, it is now a ghost spot for the 2023 Asian Cup, with China withdrawing as hosts.
It remains to be seen whether or not Xi has failed in his grand plans to become a football superpower, as there are still a few years left on the road to 2050.
But in the meantime, Cardoso believes Saudi Arabia and the Middle East are unlikely to repeat China’s mistakes.
He believes it’s a promising destination for the stars, saying the market was already starting before Ronaldo signed with Manchester United last December.
“The Middle East market was already very hot even before Cristiano Ronaldo arrived in Saudi Arabia,” Cardoso revealed.
“They will do well because they haven’t controlled to make a wonderful connection with football, but they know where and how much to invest their money.
“Just take a look at PSG and Manchester City, for example. Unlike China, they have a strategy as a monetary power.
“I think the Middle East is rarely next, but it’s already the big challenge right now. “
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