Today playing in China is seen as the big money move, the chance for players to earn some serious coin.
The investment in the Chinese Super League has gone through the roof in the past few years as the country seeks to improve quickly as a football nation. President XI Jinping wants his country capable of hosting and winning a World Cup as soon as possible.
With that in mind, money is being pumped into grassroots and Chinese clubs have scrambled to sign some of the best players on the planet. Oscar, Graziano Pelle, Papiss Cisse, Jackson Martinez, Paulinho, John Obi Mikel, Axel Witsel, Nikica Jelavic, Pato, Nicolas Anelka, Didier Drogba, Eidur Guojohnsen, Gervinho, Ricardo Carvalho, Nikola Petkovic, Carlos Tevez, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Robinho, Vagner Love and Hulk are all playing now or have spent time recently in the Chinese Super League.
Chinese teams have also tried to bring in Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Wayne Rooney, Yaya Toure, Alexis Sanchez, Mario Balotelli and other high-profile stars. The pot of gold seems endless.
But it is not all rosy in the Asian country. Tales of foreign players going unpaid, of being paid late and of being frozen out with no explanation are common. Australians Robbie Kruse and James Holland have just terminated their contracts with Liaoning Whowin FC after the club failed to honor its contractual obligations to the pair. It’s a familiar story.
Australian players are a common talent source for Chinese clubs because they are cheap to sign, compared to their European and South American counterparts, and because they come under the Asian quota system. In total nearly 40 Australians have played in China in the past decade. Currently Socceroos Ryan McGowan and Apostolos Giannou are on the books of Guizhou HFZC and Guangzhou R&F.
Australia’s Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), the industry body for players, is helping Kruse and Holland get back the money they are owed. According to reports, in the past two years the PFA has had to chase $2.7 million in total for players that Chinese clubs declined to pay. It keeps happening again and again.
As one football agent told The Worldgame website last year: “There have been plenty of Australian players who have had payment disputes with clubs in the past ... it all depends on how water tight your contract us. Often agents and players get blinded by the money and don’t look into some of the ramifications of the loopholes”.
Australians are far from the only nationality to have been affected by unscrupulous clubs. The Chinese Super League has been a virtual United Nations of talent in the past decade. But the examples of Kruse and Holland reinforce that Chinese football is not the golden goose with an unlimited supply of golden eggs.
There remains serious problems to be addressed in the Chinese game with the way some clubs are run and operated. Professionalism and the honouring of contracts can be found wanting at times. Players and coaches can be put on the chopping block, without rhyme or reason, at any time. Often contracts are not worth the paper they are printed on. FIFA and the Chinese Football Association need to step in and sort this mess out. The current situation can only hurt the competition’s image and appeal.
The lure of the yuan will remain strong for many. Football is a short career and a season in China can set up a player for life once they hang up their boots.
But they’ve been warned that in the Chinese Super League things are not always as straightforward as they seem.
