November 4 – The Chinese Super League (CSL) lurched deeper into club crisis with Hebei FC, based in Langfang in the northern province of Hebei, looking set to become the second to fold following February’s collapse of Jiangsu Suning.
Last week, the club said that operations would cease until a new investor was secured. “Considering its operation has practically stopped, the club decided that from the date of Oct. 26, 2021, to cease operation with its employees furloughed,” said a club statement, according to Chinese news agency Xinhua.
Hebei, owned by property developer China Fortune Land Development and a former club of Javier Mascherano, has even struggled to pay electricity bills on time at its training complex. Youth teams were sent on leave in November.
China Fortune Land Development recently announced a restructuring plan to address debts of $42 billion, according to local media.
Hebei’s problems signal a further downturn in the Chinese game, once the pet project of China’s Xi Jinping. Last February, Jiangsu was shut down by Suning, citing financial difficulties, just 100 days after they had won the CSL.
In September, high-flying, big spenders Guangzhou Evergrande also ran into financial trouble, with Bloomberg estimating that Evergrande was losing between $155-310 million on the club annually. In the past decade, the club had been the dominant force on the domestic scene, winning the Chinese crown eight times. In 2013, Evergrande became the first Chinese club to win the Champions League, Asia’s premier club competition.
Guangzhou have asked for government aid to survive, a move that was anticipated would herald further and more structural ownership changes in the CSL.
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