The Chinese public returns this Saturday to the stands of super leaguethree years after being away from the fields due to covid, and with a record presence of five Spanish technicians.
Pedro Morilla, Javier Pereira, Sergio Zarco, Jordi Vinyals and Antonio Gómez-Carreño they open a championship that inaugurates a new era at the head of five clubs.
The 20th edition of the Asian giant’s top football competition leaves behind three years of a strict anti-pandemic policy of ‘zero covid’, the same one that emptied the stadiums of spectators, many clubs of important income for their survival and caused the defeat of its main actors.
But what many have classified as a downfall in Chinese professional soccer, others consider it served to lay a stronger foundation for the development of the sporting event in the country.
CANDIDATES FOR TITLE WITH SPANISH ACCENT
The current champion, the Three Towns of Wuhan of Andalusian Pedro Morilla, will be able to defend his title, celebrate it together with the promotions achieved in 2020 and 2021 in front of 54,000 fans who know his stadium, in a city that has nothing like what the country and it has shown. football has suffered since the pandemic broke out.
A defending champion who will face another Spanish coach in China on the opening day, Javier Pereira from Extremadura, who will make his debut in charge of Shanghai Port, is one of the candidates to take the crown from him.
The coach, who has a Brazilian Oscarformer player of Chelsea and one of the most well-known names in the competition as a benchmark, will command the club the strongest this winter break, with a total of 24.71 million euros in transfers according to the Transfermarkt portal.
The Spanish-speaking shortlist on the benches that will participate in the next edition of the Asian Champions League with the Chinese teams is completed by the Catalan Jordi Vinyals in the leadership of ZhejiangPro.
“This year our demand will be greater, we are no longer the team that rises and surprises, therefore our level has to rise to continue competing,” Vinyals told EFE when asked about his expectations for the new season.
RETURN OF FANS TO NEW STADIUMS
A rookie in the technical area of the CSL, but with 11 years of experience in China, is Sergio Zarco, who replaced Pereira at Henan Songhsan with a desire to see animation in the stands again.
“Having the fans back on the pitches is one of the greatest joys for everyone,” the Madrid coach told EFE, adding that “after 3 years of not getting the heat of the people on the pitch, the truth is that we I want to start and enjoy a football match with the fans”.
A sentiment shared by Vinyls, who missed “the atmosphere with the people on the field, whether you play at home or not”, despite having “reduced” attendances at some games last season.
He will also enjoy for the first time the atmosphere of the stadiums in the highest category Antonio Gómez-Carreño after being promoted last season with qingdao hainiu from League 1, the second professional ladder of Chinese football.
The temples of football, such as the Beijing Workers Stadium, are set to host the 2023 Asian Cup, which faces China’s inability to ensure the presence of spectators in the stands on time due to restrictions on its pandemic, will move to Qatar in 2024.
END OF THE EXPENSIVE PANDEMIC
On the Weibo platform -similar to Twitter, which is censored in China-, a publication listed ten stadiums renovated or newly built for the 2023 Asian Cup during the pandemic, adding to the alleged cost of construction or renovation reaching in the amount of 2,603 million euros. .
Some investments, which added to the lack of income at the box office and greater economic control by the authorities, have removed at least 30 professional clubs since 2020, the last two being the recently promoted to CSL Kunshan FC and Guangzhou City.
These two withdrawals from clubs that were initially entitled to participate in the CSL on sporting merits reduced the number of members in the top flight to 16, the eleventh recession that the pandemic has face Chinese football.
“It coincides with a restructuring of the soccer economy in China and in that aspect it has been affected a lot,” Vinyals said of how the pandemic has disrupted the sport in the country.
Some problems, to which are added the latest arrests and investigations of senior officials of the Asian giant’s football authorities, but this will not prevent seeing the first full stadiums eager to score goals.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
