The East Stand | Chinese Super League: Guangzhou Evergrande break club rules to keep up with Beijing Guoan amid under-23 farce

If there’s one thing that you can guarantee in the Chinese Super League, it’s that clubs excel at obeying the letter of the law but not its spirit. The Chinese Football Association’s rules relating to under-23 footballers is a case in point. Quotas for under-23s were first introduced at the start of the 2017 season and teams were canny about sticking to the rules, with early substitutions not unheard of. Last season the rules were changed to link the number of under-23s on the pitch to the number of foreigners before being relaxed for the Asian Games, where China’s under-23s were playing in Indonesia. They were later abandoned entirely when the CFA decided that military training and short haircuts were what the players needed and called up 55 of them for an extracurricular camp. This season the ties between under-23s and foreign players were ended with the rules changing again. One under-23 has be in the starting 11 and three have to play in the match. Cue farce. This was witnessed in the opening game of the weekend where Henan Jianye took on champions Shanghai SIPG. The hosts took a little over two minutes to tell the referee that they were making a change. Yang Guoyuan was given the crooked finger and 29-year-old Feng Zhouyi took the 22-year-old’s place. An Elkeson goal decided the game and made sure that the champions kept themselves in the title race. This was not an isolated incident, although there was no repeat of last week’s playing a goalkeeper outfield to meet the under-23 quota. In the game between Dalian Yifang and Shenzhen, He Yupeng got the most action packed two minutes of the weekend and made himself a candidate for a pub quiz question in the future. He was subbed on for Dalian Yifang after 90 minutes, proceeded to score the winner and was then subbed off again. Yang Fangzhi, who came on for the goalscorer in the 92nd minute, was the embodiment of the old line in newspaper player ratings – “Not on long enough to rate”. It was the same for Shenzhen’s Xie Baoxian, with the 22-year-old starting the game and getting hooked after nine minutes for Li Yuanyi. No one is doing anything wrong but it is hard to imagine that anyone at the CFA is sat thinking they have improved their own rule this season – and it makes you wonder how they will change it for next season. It’s not just the suits at the CFA who are keen on a rule change. The clubs are tying themselves in knots too. Guangzhou Evergrande started this season with the bright idea that they would improve their Chinese players by only letting them play with two rather than three foreign teammates. Admittedly, Paulinho and Anderson Talisca are among the best to learn from as they proved with goals in the 3-2 win over new boys Wuhan Zall this weekend. But manager Fabio Cannavaro had to change things up with his side 1-0 down at half-time and looking at an end to their title hopes with just a third of the season gone. He used the interval to bring on Ty Browning to join the Brazilian pair and the game ended with three points. Browning, who joined the club from Everton, was born in Liverpool and played in the England youth set-up. Cannavaro’s answer to criticism from the media was that “Browning is a Chinese player”, based on the club’s attempts to naturalise him as a citizen based on his grandparents. It turns out you can’t afford to play by your own rules with the title on the line. Beijing Guoan made it 10 wins in a row to continue their perfect start to the season. The winner in their 2-1 victory over Tianjin Tianhai came from the naturalised Nico Yennaris. As if to prove that they are the best at playing by the rules Roger Schmidt’s runaway leaders brought on their other naturalised player John Hou Saeter, who also counts as an under-23, on as a 90th minute substitute. It’s a massive week for Guoan. They play Urawa Red Diamonds in the AFC Champions League needing a win to go through at the Japanese club’s expense and they then travel to champions Shanghai SIPG at Shanghai Stadium next Sunday. While it is an uncertain week for Beijing, one thing is all too clear just outside the city. Whoever replaces Chris Coleman has a lot to do to right the ship at Hebei China Fortune. It was another tale of the substitutes in Tianjin. Half-time sub Johnathan made the difference for Tianjin Teda, bagging both of their goals in 2-0 win. His first came immediately after the restart and saw Hong Kong defender Andy Russell subbed off after making a mistake for the opener. Chinese Super League: Chris Coleman sacked by Hebei China Fortune after shocking start to season As well as a new boss, the club might want to starting look into who they might be able to naturalise.

.css-1m2rp1p{color:#34b8b5;}The East Stand | Chinese Super League: Guangzhou Evergrande break club rules to keep up with Beijing Guoan amid under-23 farce

The East Stand | Chinese Super League: Guangzhou Evergrande break club rules to keep up with Beijing Guoan amid under-23 farce