Can European and Chinese football clubs both win in China?
- Chinese Super League side Tianjin Tianhai lead 14 teams to drop out of league this season amid ‘fatal flaws’ in finances
- Borussia Dortmund, Juventus and Chelsea prove that overseas clubs can engage fans even with football on Covid-19 hiatus
The football season in China remains on pause. Clubs are training awaiting news on when the new season, originally expected to begin in February, will kick off and what it might look like.
That’s not to say that nothing is happening in the meantime. Clubs are pulling out of the league or going bust.
Now they have gone, along with 14 others, all probably never to be seen again
State news agency Xinhua have mourned the loss of these clubs in an editorial that asks others to heed the warning. “The tragedy of Tianhai is enough to warn many other professional football clubs in China,” they wrote.
“When funds are cut off from the parent company that controls the majority of shares, and a new investor cannot be found, it will only lead to bankruptcy. Who out of the other football clubs can guarantee that the same tragedy won't befall them?
“Through the Tianhai tragedy we once again see that most Chinese professional football clubs have fatal flaws in their viability.”
These fatal flaws risk being more exposed when the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic becomes clearer.
Titan Sports put it more succinctly on Twitter – “Death rate of Chinese professional clubs in 2019: 21.9 [per cent]”
There are still signs of life. Xi’an FC has agreed a “strategic cooperation” deal with Shanxi Lingshi Guangjinbao Coal Industry Company, according to SportsMoney. The company has “invested in the club and will build a club for 100 years”.
To paraphrase former British prime minister Harold Wilson, a week is a long time in Chinese football. A century is unthinkable.
But this is meant to be the Chinese Century and while football in China is in ailing health, European football continues to bank on China.
“The joint venture represents an important step in La Liga's commercial strategy in China,” La Liga China SEO Sergi Torrents said in a press release.
“Mediapro and Super Sports Media become part of our development in the country, adding local expertise and new assets with which we hope to expand our pool of partners and licensees in the region.”
La Liga, which has the minority stake in the initial 15-year deal, is targeting making €30 million (US$32.6 million) per year from said pool of Chinese partners and licensees within five years, the Financial Times reported. The longer term goal is to build La Liga’s brand within the country and sell broadcast rights for more than the English Premier League.
Italian champions Juventus virtually united their 37 China fan clubs – their most in any country outside Italy – with an online game show watched by 11.2 million people. Chelsea, meanwhile, got 7.5 million to tune into a live stream on Weibo and Douyin.
Such initiatives are only going to become more important. Manchester United announced last week that the coronavirus has cost them US$28 million in lost revenue and they – and the rest of Europe – will be looking to China to make it up.
Presumably with no preseason tours, digital interaction is the new normal for European clubs in China, but no football has proved no object to them. What the future holds for Chinese football looks less certain.
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