Chinese Super League – A Concern For Football?
Oscar’s recent move to Chinese Super League club Shanghai International Port Group Football Club (SIPG FC) made headlines. Not only for the price but making him another high profile player switching to the Far East. This does not bode well for football.
Quality of Football
The quality of the Chinese League is not really something that catches the eye. Even with all the investment and hype, the Chinese League remains dull and uninteresting. The lack of quality and gap between the football played in China to even a lower European League is huge. China with all it’s population has not been ale to muster a quality team and has also therefore resorted to buying average players from foreign leagues for huge sums of money.
There are evidently many experienced coaches currently plying their trade in the CSL. The likes of Manuel Pellegrini and André Villas-Boas. Whether this will actually improve the quality of football remains to be seen.
Price Inflation
The biggest problem football faces from China is the inflation in prices. The Chinese teams have huge reserves of funds to spend as a result of their super-rich owners. More often than not, they also pay huge sums of money for largely average players (with no disrespect). Some examples include the likes of Gervinho, Fredy Guarin, Graziano Pelle and Demba Ba who were bought for large sums of money. What this does is raises the price of world class stars immensely. So for example if a player like Alex Texeira, who has spent the majority of his career playing for Shakhtar Donetsk in the Ukrainian League, commands a fee of 38 million pounds.
In such cases clubs would not hesitate to demand world record transfer fees for their star players. Many managers like Wenger and Conte have also expressed their concern about the state of economics in football.
Huge Wages
The biggest attraction for players in China are the massive wages they offer.
To put into perspective Oscar and Carlos Tevez (who is nearing a move) are now the highest earning players in the world without counting endorsements. Yes, they do earn more than Messi and Ronaldo, while Hulk isn’t very far behind either.
This is the biggest attraction of the Chinese League. It’s also interesting to note that most of the players who do make big money moves are usually South American or African. This is perhaps an indication that it is easier to attract players of a poorer background.
Also, this makes players around the world think if they are being paid enough for their services and could make them very easily demand much higher salaries from their clubs.
So What Can Be Done?
It is difficult to tell if the crazed spending in China will slow down or stop anytime soon. Football fans can only hope that players will consider the quality of football they play over the money they’re offered. Hopefully the Chinese bubble will break soon and normalcy restored to football and the economy revolving around it. It certainly is saddening to see so many players move in the prime of their careers from prestigious clubs to a completely unproven and frankly rather pitiable league.