Just when the "spending power of the Chinese Super League looked set to make it a major player" in football's transfer market, the country's recent economic stumbles "have emerged as a brake on its ambitions," according to John Duerden of the AP. China was emerging as a "genuine alternative option to Europe and the wealthy Gulf states as a destination for top-line players," but July's "precipitous decline" in the nation's stock market -- it fell 30% from its peak -- "now threatens to curtail the spending." Guangzhou co-Owner Jack Ma alone reportedly lost $3B and "investors big and small alike suffered precipitous falls in the value of their investments." Victor Shih, a Chinese financial and political expert at the University of San Diego's School of Global Policy & Strategy, believes that the market decline, and new regulations limiting liquidity, "means transfer spending faces a major trim." Shih: "It is a general problem for wealthy people in China who are major shareholders in companies. The emergency decree issued on July 8 prohibits any shareholder who owns over five percent of a company from selling these shares in the next six months. This is going to be a big problem for some people as they won't be able to liquidate their wealth." Shanghai SIPG paid a reported figure of around $22M, an Asian transfer record, to Al Ain of the United Arab Emirates to sign Ghanaian striker Asamoah Gyan. That offer was "too good to turn down, and so too was the one that lured Brazilian striker Eduardo from South Korean champion Jeonbuk Motors to Chinese second-tier team Hebei CFFC." The threat from the stock downturn "is serious, but there is now underlying strength in the Chinese game beyond the investments of billionaires." The Chinese Super League is "easily the best attended of the continent's regular leagues with an average attendance this season of over 23,000" (AP, 7/22).
