Chinese Clubs are taking over and are poaching talented players all over Europe at ridiculously high prices; many fans following the major European leagues are amused at how these Chinese clubs can afford to pay astronomical fees for players. Guangzhou Evergrande reportedly paid £31million for Jackson Martinez, another club – Jiangsu spent £38million on Alex Teixeira and an extra £21million to lure Chelsea’s Ramirez.



Shanghai SIPG broke the record for the first time in January this year with their £13.9million recruitment of Brazilian striker Elkeson from fellow Chinese League side Guangzhou. Amongst the other high profile players to have moved to China are Gervinho, Fredy Guarin, Paulinho, Tim Cahill, Demba Ba and Asamoah Gyan.



The President + Wealthy Owners Factor

It is common knowledge that the Chinese President is a huge football fan and has personally encouraged Chinese football to become one of the best in the world. President Xi also announced, among other things, a national endeavour to create a domestic sports economy worth about $850bn by 2025; this would include plans and preparations for future World Cup bids.

Having a strong domestic league is very helpful for a good World Cup bid – having the infrastructure in place, for example, makes your case quite strong while bidding to host the World Cup as a country.

The Chinese Super League, which is the centerpiece of Chinese sporting strategy, is set to become massive considering how much the wealthy owners of these clubs are willing to splash on their teams.

-Guangzhou Evergrande, the most successful Chinese club in recent years, is bankrolled by Evergrande Group (60%), one of China’s biggest construction firms, and Alibaba (40%)
-Jiangsu Suning is owned by the Suning Commerce Group, one of China’s biggest privately owned retailers
-Beijing Guoan’s primary shareholder is the CITIC Group, a state-owned investment company of the People’s Republic of China.

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