There are finally positive signs for the game, but only after three years that diminished the CSL from its global standing
here cannot be many, if any, leagues that have been affected by the pandemic as much as the Chinese Super League. It was the first to deal with Covid-19 and, with China keeping stringent restrictions on daily life longer than elsewhere, the last to operate in tightly controlled conditions. With Beijing’s so-called zero-Covid policy, the country of 1.4bn people is finally opening up and this can only be good news for its beleaguered football industry.
From then, the Chinese Super League went from being one of the world’s highest-profile competitions to one where, for three years, most games took place in empty stadiums and centralised venues. Players were either stuck in hotels for months or, like Paulinho and Anderson Talisca in 2021, could not get back into the country from overseas and ended up being released from their contracts.
It didn’t work anyway as Team Dragon did not get close to Qatar, ending qualification eight points behind Oman and a massive 17 behind the group winners, Saudi Arabia, home of a league that had replaced China as the go-to one in Asia for foreign stars even before the If another international failure was not a shock, neither were growing financial issues. With no fans buying tickets, sponsorship revenue falling and broadcasters losing interest because of the erratic scheduling, many clubs were soon struggling. In February 2021 the defending champions, Jiangsu FC, owned by the retail giant Suning, which is currently looking to sell Internazionale, folded. The financial struggles of property developers, hit by an overheated market, posed a bigger problem.
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