18 Chinese football clubs urged to clear debt

The Chinese Football Association (CFA) has issued a notice to 18 football clubs, including 13 from the Super League, urging them to clear their debt, reports people.cn, the People's Daily's online portal.

The 18 clubs that can't clear their debt will be banned from domestic competition next season, as well as next year's Asian Champions League.

The Chinese Football Association's letter to 18 football clubs, demanding they clear their debts before August 15, 2017. [Photo: akxw.cn]

CFA said the mentioned clubs must solve issues connected to unpaid salaries, bonuses and transfer fees, and deliver payment evidence before August 15.

The CFA's notice follows a similar move by the Asian Football Confederation, which wrote to the CFA on July 11, 2017, demanding that Chinese clubs had to clear all outstanding payments before August 31st or face exclusion from next year's Asian Champions League.

Only three Chinese Super League clubs are completely up on their payments.

Numerous Chinese clubs have spent absorbent amounts of money to try to attract foreign talent in recent years.

However, while many foreign players have been drawn to China, many of them have complained about delayed payments for both salaries and bonuses.

This has led to speculation that many of the Chinese clubs have knowingly overstretched their finances on the expectation that they could be bailed out so as to not embarrass Chinese football, which the government hopes to grow into a world powerhouse in the coming years.