Shenzhen latest Chinese football club to fold under weight of past debt, refused license for 2024 season
- Inaugural Chinese Super League champions were relegated at the end of the 2023 season
- Shenzhen the second club in a week to drop out of professional leagues, after Dalian Pro also collapsed
Inaugural Chinese Super League (CSL) champions Shenzhen FC said on Monday it was folding with immediate effect, after failing to be granted a license for the upcoming season.
Founded in 1994, Shenzhen FC became the first team to win all three professional divisions in China when they won the CSL just 10 years later, in what turned out to be the club’s last league title.
The team endured turbulent times after the 2004 title win and never finished higher than 11th in the top division, until their relegation to China League One in 2011.
They were eventually promoted back to the CSL in 2019 but finished rock bottom in 2023, and were relegated once more.
“According to the list of debt-clearing clubs announced by the Chinese Football Association, Shenzhen Football Club failed to pass the professional league’s admission for the 2024 season and cannot continue to compete in the professional football league,” a club statement said.
The announcement of the club’s collapse comes a day after Cristiano Ronaldo and his Al Nassr side landed in Shenzhen for two preseason friendlies, and less than a week after Dalian Pro also announced it would not be competing because of “historical debts that could not be resolved”.
Dalian Pro finished second bottom of the CSL last year and were also relegated.
“This is pretty common at this time of year because the CSL carries out an audit to check the finances of clubs,” said Cameron Wilson, Chinese football expert and founding editor of Wild East Football.
“If there’s any clubs which have been found not to pass a certain level of financial solvency, they lose their license.”
This is not the first time a team in the city of Dalian, Liaoning province, has ceased to exist.
Dalian Shide FC were once China’s most decorated club with eight league championships to its name before they went under in 2012.
The story of the club’s demise involves their owner being arrested and sentenced to four years in prison after he bribed former Mayor of Dalian, Bo Xilai.
Wilson said that despite controversy off the pitch, Dalian has been a hotbed for producing Chinese football talent over the years.
“If you look at the national team [over the years] there’s a really disproportionate percentage of players that come from Dalian.
“For that area to not have a team anymore is pretty sad, and it doesn’t say anything good about the long term viability of football in that part of the country.”
