Why Jiangsu FC won't play the next Chinese Super League

Chinese team Jiangsu FC will not participate in the next Chinese Super League, China's top league, but also in other competitions. Nanjing's team, winner of the last edition of the championship, no longer exists at the sporting level: in February, after Suning Group had retired from governance and the club had been forced to change its name from the Chinese Government (from Jiangsu Suning to Jiangsu FC), the squad had been dismantled, with players such as Eder and Miranda transferred to other teams after the club had no longer paid them salaries. The team, in fact, had been idle since March. With the end of Jiangsu and the change of name forced by the Chinese government to all teams, football in China has lost much of the glitz built on millionaire transfers over the past four seasons. But Jiangsu is not the only team to have economic problems.

In the next three Chinese championships, a total of six teams won't be admitted to the next tournament due to economic problems. But as the Guardian explained, it is a precarious condition that Chinese football has been experiencing for a long time.  In fact, even before the coronavirus, the system of rich salaries guaranteed to technical staff and players was collapsing also due to the Chinese Government's decision to limit the investments of the teams. The policy of the Republic of China was and is to grow its companies in every sector of society, and sport has not been excluded. The government has put a cap on salaries to block the arrival of European players and give more space to local talent, but this has had far more negative than positive consequences. In this way, the teams lost the interest of several foreign sponsors and, in addition, the European players, no longer being able to earn the figures from which they had been attracted, left.

In addition, the recent cotton crisis has also included Chinese football, given that the local national football team is sponsored by Nike, and with the boycott of the American brand, there could also be repercussions in the relationship with the Chinese Selection.