Sixteen clubs have been lost across the top three divisions in the past year after the bubble of big spending burst
If
Liverpool are bad champions, one wonders what Roy Keane makes of China’s Jiangsu FC, who folded on Sunday three months after celebrating a first Chinese Super League title. The country’s leaders have bigger worries, however. Jiangsu are not the first top-tier team club to cease operations – Tianjin Tianhai went bankrupt last May and Tianjin Tigers supporters are worried their team could follow – but losing the champions highlights the precariousness of many clubs, with 16 lost across the top three divisions in the past year.
When
Xi Jinping, the country’s president, made clear about a decade ago that it was time to end China’s
Football underachievement, conglomerates and other enterprises connected to the state moved quickly to get involved in the local game. We are finding out what happens to their football clubs when the businesses that own them start to struggle.