by Joe Azar
I was fine with it at first. When the Chinese Super League started to spend an insane amount on players, it was seen as a silly pipedream. No way a league could thrive in an environment so unfriendly with such a vast drought of prestige and competition. Yes, the old adage is loyalty in sports is long gone; but players still have an ounce of respect toward the legacy of the world’s most popular game…..right?
Guess not. Turns out the CSL’s lust for the world’s premier players is more than a pipe dream, it’s a reality that has turned into European clubs’ worst nightmare. These billionaires didn’t bring a knife to gunfight. Hell, they didn’t even bring bazookas. The league has begun nuclear war, and they have all the bombs. Don’t believe they can pry stars away from the top clubs in the world? At 33 Carlos Tevez is making over $200,000 more a week than both Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. If the league is willing to spend that amount of money on a player well past his prime, imagine the cash they’ll spew out for world-class talent. And while they haven’t been able to hook the highest echelon of talent, the impact the league will have on the sport will only grow.
In all fairness, you have to give the league a tremendous amount of credit. Back in 2015 when the teams noticed the high demand from its fans to have a competitive league, owners immediately shifted their focus to acquiring a specific demographic: Latin American players.
Let’s go back to Carlos Tevez. A hero in his hometown of Buenos Aires, Tevez was living the dream playing for his childhood club Boca Juniors. Why would he leave the club he loves in his home country to play in China? Well, it’s due to his hometown that he was lured. Tevez, along with many players from the continent, grew up in the poor ghettos of their respective country. For them, playing soccer isn’t just about the love of the game, it was also their best shot at making a good living. With no education system or foundation financially for them to lean on, Tevez and company had only one route to get out of their bad situation.
For them, their dream is to get large amounts of cash and not only pay for their life, but for the lives of their families. Getting offered $600,000 to kick a ball around would entice people with ideal lifestyles, let alone ones dealt a less than ideal hand in life. Tevez, Oscar and Jackson Martinez all have made the move to the CSL, and the owner’s choice to dish out cash to players from the barrios and favelas is executed to near perfection.
Still, none of these players have been regarded as “top-10 talent” at the time of their arrival. For now at least, the best players still enjoy the glamour of playing for clubs like Barcelona or Manchester United. However, with a new rule to be implemented in 2018, UEFA, Europe’s governing body of soccer, might be shooting themselves in the foot.
It seems like a reasonable idea at first. UEFA’s “Financial Fair Play” rule aims in theory to prevent the top teams in the continent from spending significantly more money on transfers over the minnows in every league by enforcing a limit on the sum of money teams could use to get new talent. Problem is, the limit is not universal for every team. Manchester United will still be able to spend more than Millwall or Everton. In fact, the only thing FPP prevents is teams being bought out by a rich owner and turn a team from Cinderella to perennial power. Which means, that teams that are already dominant will never have new challengers.
In fact, this rule will turn teams into a business. With a limit on transfers, there will be a reduction in wage funds, which in turn means top players won’t be offered nearly as much to take their talents to Europe.
Sure, the Chinese government has informed owners they too will have a limit on how much money the CSL can use on salaries and transfers, but it won’t be as much as European clubs, but even if the limit gets stricter, FPP will allow China to at least be even the playing field with even the most iconic of clubs. Ironically, the biggest threat to UEFA’s power concerning club soccer could be themselves.
It’s scary how quick the league in China is growing. More players with better talent are starting to make their way over to Asia, changing the dynamic in power in club soccer; and depending on the decisions made by UEFA and other iconic figures, this could only be the start of China’s soccer takeover.
