Chinese Super League start date elusive, but preseason in full swing – in hotel quarantine

Chinese Super League sides Shanghai Port and Shanghai Shenhua have arrived for preseason quarantine in Dalian, in the country’s northeast, but a start date for the domestic football league remains elusive.

Dalian is set to serve as one of three venues to host this season’s fixtures. The city of Meizhou, in the southern Guangdong province, will be another, with a third and final location yet to be decided.

Port, last season’s runners-up, landed in Dalian on Sunday, a day after Shenhua touched down. Both teams are serving mandatory three-week hotel quarantine periods before training can begin, with posts on Twitter showing players exercising in their rooms in an attempt to maintain their fitness.

Initial reports have suggested that the first phase of the season could run from late May until late June, with matches to take place under a “closed loop” system like the one used for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

But while teams wait for an official date, preseason movement of players has been in full swing.

Financially stricken Guangzhou FC, eight times the CSL champions, have suffered an exodus of players ahead of the new season. Their naturalised Brazilian-born striker Elkeson last month signed for Gremio back in Brazil, while defender Zhang Linpeng this month ended an 11-season stint with Guangzhou to sign for Port.

But not all is lost for the struggling club. Tyias Browning, the England-born defender who has represented the China national team since 2020, will remain with Guangzhou for the coming campaign along with star forwards Wei Shihao and Yang Liyu, under newly appointed head coach Liu Zhiyu.

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Foreign players will have a smaller presence in the forthcoming season, after the CFA capped the number of imports, but several clubs have already announced a slew of international signings.

English-born Chinese player Nico Yennaris, also known as Li Ke, is set to feature for Beijing Guoan alongside Nigerian striker Samuel Adegbenro, Croatian forward Marko Dabro, South Korean defender Kang Sang-Woo and Bosnia-Herzegovina defender Samir Memisevic.

Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic have said they will have two foreign players in their squad, in Brazilian forward Naldinho and his compatriot and fellow striker Eder Lima, who played for Jiangxi Beidamen in CL1.

China’s cash-strapped football clubs are failing as new CSL season nears

Perhaps hoping to avoid the headlines of 2021, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) has warned that clubs who fail to settle all unpaid salaries by the end of the year will be relegated or expelled.

The CFA said clubs must settle at least 30 per cent of their total arrears by July 31, not less than 70 per cent by October 31, and all outstanding wages by December 31. Clubs will be booted out if they fail to meet the December 31 deadline, it said.

Those that repay less than the required 30 per cent by the end of July will be banned from registering new players in the second transfer window, and deducted three points.

While clubs wait in the hope of greater certainty about the season, several major sporting events in China have already been cancelled or postponed until 2023. The World University Games, due to start in Chengdu in late June, has been delayed until next year.

The Olympic Council of Asia announced last Friday that the 2022 Asian Games, which was supposed to be held in Hangzhou in September, would be postponed, while the Asian Youth Games, to be held in Shantou in December, was cancelled.