Arab dream and lessons from Chinese football
Saudi Arabian football is surprising global fans when recruiting a series of stars like Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, N'Golo Kante, Roberto Firmino or Ruben Neves... with contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and shows no sign of stopping.
This phenomenon is not new to world football.
In the period 2011-2017, Chinese football - with a professional tournament called the Chinese Super League (CSL) - also caused a fever when it brought in many big names, from old stars like Carlos Tevez, Nicolas Anelka, Didier. Drogba, Ezequiel Lavezzi... to prolific talents like Oscar, Graziano Pelle, Hulk, Paulinho, Gervinho, Yannick Carrasco... But the haste, harsh restrictive measures, and economic hardships followed. Covid-19 has brought this tournament into a recession for more than two years. "The tournament that used to be the home of Carlos Tevez, Hulk or Oscar ... is now a graveyard of abandoned stadiums and collapsed clubs," commented British newspaper Sunsport.
China's soccer dream was preceded by an ambitious plan by President Xi Jinping, who wants the Asian nation to become a football superpower by 2050.
At the beginning of the 21st century, Xi viewed football as one of the best tools to elevate the nation. This supreme leader wants China to rise to the top of the Asian football hierarchy by 2030, attend the World Cup, host the tournament, enter the FIFA top 20, and even win the World Cup.
To make that dream come true, Xi wants even newborn babies to learn soccer. The Chinese government plans to build 50,000 professional football academies in seven years and attract 50 million students to create the next generation of soccer players. Professional clubs are also given the opportunity to buy aggressively. The culmination was in 2016, when CLS became the world's most expensive league with $450 million, with the most shocking deal being when Shanghai Port spent $76 million to buy Oscar - the star midfielder was 25 years old then - from Chelsea.
"At that time, the Oscar transfer was the dream of many footballers and agents," Charles Cardoso, president of Aguas de Santa Barbara FC, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, told Sunsport. "Everyone believes that China is the next great thing to happen in football. The transfer market is crazy, because every team wants to sell players to China for a big transfer fee."
Besides Oscar, the Chinese football craze at that time also created another hit deal. Carlos Tevez, after leaving Juventus, was offered a contract by Shanghai Shenhua with a weekly salary of 835,000 USD in 2016. On average, the Argentine striker earns 1.26 USD per second.
The common formula of Chinese teams in recruiting stars from Europe at that time was large transfer fees and high salaries. Immediately after Euro 2016 shined with Italy Graziano Pelle, at the age of 30, immediately left Southampton in the Premier League to join Shandong Luneng and received $ 44 million for a two-and-a-half year contract and ranked sixth in the top players. the highest income in the world at that time. Southampton also received $ 17 million in transfer fees - a number that is said to be attractive for a player who has reached the age of a veteran.
China's football vision in the 2011-2020 decade is just to spend money, instead of getting it. FIFA figures show that Chinese clubs spent about $1.7 billion on foreign player purchases in these 10 years. Since 2017, authorities have started questioning clubs why they spend so much money on foreign players, who only send money out of China. And they started to prevent such deals, by imposing a 100% transfer tax on foreign players valued at over $6.1 million.
Difficulties gradually appeared and the clubs faced an uncertain future. Guangzhou Evergrande - the most successful club in the history of the tournament - is saddled with more than $300 million in debt, raising serious questions about its viability. Before that, in February 2021, Jiangsu Suning F.C. was suddenly announced by its parent company, an electronics retailer, less than four months after the team won the Super League.
Stories of stars being in debt have become commonplace, with many even being asked to bring home their jerseys and wash them themselves to cut costs as much as possible. Top foreign players such as Renato Augusto and Fernando Martins had their contracts terminated and complained to FIFA about payments owed. Former midfielder Miranda lost $ 10 million when Jiangsu Suning stopped working.
Cardoso describes China's rapid rise in football as "in a hurry". He said: "Football in China started to receive a lot of investment, but after a few seasons, it stopped due to lack of vision. They also think they are on the right track by signing big contracts with stars, But that's how they focus on the present and forget about the future." According to the Brazilian manager, Chinese football does not know what it means to host the World Cup, let alone win it. And with poor planning, lack of vision, financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic, Chinese football's ambition to become a dragon collapsed.
In its heyday, China accelerated the construction of large stadiums and football academies, attracting many real estate businesses. Most of them have merged their names into the club to promote promotion. But new stadiums and major sponsors are not synonymous with visibility and popularity.
By 2021, football in China will still be played in stadiums with almost no spectators. Even the million-dollar stars cannot attract enough fans to match the expectations and funds that the club invests in.
In April 2020, China's largest real estate group Evergrande proposed to build a stadium worth nearly $ 2 billion, with a capacity of 100,000 seats in Guangzhou. Chairman Xu Jiayin announced that it will become "a new world-class landmark on par with the Sydney Opera House and Dubai's Burj Khalifa, and at the same time it is also an important symbol of Chinese football reaching out. Global".
But the yard was under construction and the land on which it was located was confiscated by the local government for auction, and Evergrande was saddled with billions of dollars in debt.
In May 2022, when the contractors were putting all their efforts to build the Workers' Stadium to prepare for the 2023 Asian Cup. But China asked to stop hosting this tournament.
"China has developed in a way that doesn't have a lot of infrastructure and doesn't have the right kind of financial institutions," said Cardoso. "The Chinese think their entire football market will dominate thanks to its financial strength and global economic influence. But that does not guarantee success in football. Management and planning. Proper financial planning is also needed, but they don't."
Dr. Rob Wilson, a football finance expert at Sheffield Hallam University, told British newspaper Sportmail: "Chinese football back then was like trying to buy 150 years of history. Their goal was to accelerate their status as a superpower. world football so that their team has the ability to win the World Cup. And the fact that they have done shows that it is impossible."
"Signing Ronaldo and Benzema is just the beginning," Hutton announced on August 3. "I think the budget will be disbursed for many years. I've been in the sports industry for 40 years and I've never seen such a big, ambitious and determined project. It's definitely a boost. great speed".
According to Sky Sports, in the next five years, Saudi Arabia wants to have 100 of the best foreign players play in the Saudi Pro League in a more serious and long-term plan to elevate the country's football. Mohammed Hamdi, a football expert in the Middle East and a former director of Al Jazira FC in Abu Dhabi, believes Saudi Arabia will have no problem attracting top and successful talent.
"They have the infrastructure," he said. "They have the backing of the country, can host a World Cup. We've seen how great the World Cup in Qatar is. This is a long-term vision where you can attract TV deals, media deals. media, sponsorship and more visitors to the country. Not only the older players, you will probably see young players ready to play in the Saudi Pro League."
