Chinese football clubs are "splashing their cash in Europe," as wealthy owners embrace President Xi Jinping's vision of the "sleeping Asian giant becoming a new heavyweight in the sport," according to Benjamin Carlson of the AFP. As January's European transfer window "began to swing shut on Monday," clubs in the top two tiers of Chinese football had spent more than $216M collectively on players, according to website transfermarkt. That was more than 60% higher than the total spent in the winter transfer market last year. But critics say that owners "are motivated more by a desire to curry favour with political power than by a love for the Beautiful Game." Questions have also been asked about whether Chinese clubs "are paying over the odds for players who may be past their best" -- many of the new arrivals are in their late 20s -- and if European clubs "are seeking to unload overpaid stars on willing buyers." Rowan Simons, the author of a book on Chinese football, said, "There is one new reason for Chinese billionaires to invest in football inside China -- to build political capital in uncertain times." The spending spree "comes after a powerful Communist Party committee" chaired by Xi declared, "Revitalizing soccer is a must to build China into a sports powerhouse as part of the Chinese dream." Companies and businessmen "have since rushed to put money into football." Tony Rallis, who brokered a deal to sell Australian int'l Trent Sainsbury to Chinese Super League club Jiangsu Suning, said, "It's what their president wants. Why is it any different from the Chinese government encouraging them to buy Australian farms, invest in African countries? To me that's an example of due diligence and proper planning." In January, Chelsea's Brazilian midfielder Ramires went to Jiangsu Suning for a CSL record €28M ($30.5M), Hebei China Fortune bought Ivorian striker Gervinho from AS Roma for €18M ($19.6M), and Shanghai Shenhua took Inter Milan's Colombian int'l Fredy Guarin for €13M ($14.2M), according to transfermarkt's figures. Suning, a privately held retail conglomerate that sells appliances at more than 1,600 stores, "only bought the Jiangsu team in December, and subsequently renamed it." Shanghai-based digital marketing agency Mailman Sports Business Dir David Hornby said, "When the Chinese government says they are setting their mind to something, it means 'This is how you're going to get on our good side.'" But experts say that "the avalanche of cash is unlikely to turn into trophies for the national team -- and could even be counter-productive." Foreigners coming to play in the CSL often earn millions of dollars, and Gao Zhaoyu, an expert on Chinese sport at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, said club money "that could be spent on training young players was instead going into transfer fees and salaries -- while China's salary cap only applied to domestic players," rather than foreigners, and owners "had ignored it in any case." Regardless of "whether or not they are getting value for money, some observers doubt the high rates of spending are sustainable once the enthusiasm wanes" (AFP, 2/1).
APPEAL OF ASIA: In London, John Duerden reported China "is set to become the biggest non-European league in the world in the not-too-distant future," overtaking the likes of MLS, Mexico and "any other you may care to mention." The "really big names that can be tempted to leave Europe often go to MLS" -- David Beckham, Frank Lampard, Thierry Henry, Steven Gerrard, Kaka and Andrea Pirlo -- but China is "increasingly able to pay big money" for players that are "not quite so stellar but are usually much closer to their prime." East Asia "is still a relative culture shock for players based in South America or Europe than North America but a growing number of Chinese clubs can offer huge salaries," with Renato Augusto more than quadrupling his. The U.S. transfer system "can be complex with plenty of rules and regulations." In China, it is "naked capitalism." In terms of attendance, MLS and China "are similar but perhaps not for long." The 2016 CSL season, set to kick off in March, is "the most eagerly-awaited yet." Last year saw an average attendance of just over 22,000, less than two hundred behind Italy and France. A high-ranking league official said that this season "will see the 25,000 barrier broken" and predicts that by '18, the CSL will be the third most-watched football league in terms of average attendance in the world behind the Bundesliga and the EPL (GUARDIAN, 2/1).
