SHANGHAI: Chinese Super League champions Guangzhou Evergrande on Thursday (Apr 16) began building a new stadium costing 12 billion yuan (US $1.7 billion) and boasting a 100,000 capacity - one of the world's largest arenas. The stadium, which will be marginally bigger than Barcelona's famous Camp Nou, is scheduled to be ready by the end of 2022, Xinhua news agency said. Advertisement Guangzhou Evergrande Football Stadium will have an eye-catching lotus flower design wrapped around it, a nod to the southern city's status as China's "Flower City". The stadium will be, for a time at least, the world's largest football venue, until the Camp Nou expands to 105,000 seats after its ongoing redevelopment. Eight-time Chinese champions Guangzhou, who are coached by Italian World Cup winner Fabio Cannavaro and have won the AFC Champions League twice, average about 50,000 fans for home matches. China's government is making an aggressive push to promote football in the country and several major new stadiums are being built around the nation. Advertisement Evergrande's Chinese Super League rivals Shanghai SIPG are constructing a new arena that will seat 33,000 and is expected to be finished in 2021. China will host the newly expanded 2021 FIFA Club World Cup and the 2023 AFC Asian Cup, while Shanghai is interested in holding the Olympics. GUANGZHOU PLAYER SACKED One player who is unlikely to enjoy the new mega- arena as his home ground is Yu Hanchao. Guangzhou sacked the winger after he was spotted altering the licence plate on his Mercedes 4x4. The club said that the 33-year-old had "severely violated" the club's strict disciplinary code. Police in the southern city fined the international winger 5,000 yuan (US$700), added 12 points to his licence and will hold him for 15 days in "administrative detention". It came after footage emerged on Tuesday of the 59-capped Yu, who has scored nine goals for China, appearing to change a letter E on his registration plate to F for reasons that were not immediately clear. He is believed to have done to get around vehicle restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. "Guangzhou traffic police found an illegal traffic safety act of using a modified vehicle number plate," police officials said in a statement on the Twitter-like Weibo. "After investigation and evidence collection by Guangzhou traffic police, the perpetrator surnamed Yu admitted the illegal facts." China's record goalscorer Hao Haidong criticised the decision as Evergrande Group's billionaire chairman Xu Jiayin "treating players like tools". Hao, who has 7.5 million followers on Weibo, wrote: "Please have some respect for labour laws, Yu Hanchao's behaviour wasn't that bad to be sacked." Gao Lin, another player capped more than 100 times by China and Yu's former team-mate at eight- time Chinese Super League champions Guangzhou, also weighed in on his behalf. "He shouldn't have done it but he did and accepted the punishment," said Gao, now at Shenzhen F.C. "We should forgive him and encourage him to behave better in future."​​​​​​​ However, state media was far less forgiving. "Acts prohibited by law are a red line for any citizen and cannot be crossed," said Xinhua news agency.

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