‘No pay no gain’, big bonus behind GZ Evergrande's triple champions

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After scoring 2 more away goals, Guangzhou Evergrade Taobao F.C. eventually beat Jiangsu Suning F.C. and won the 2016 CFA CUP on the night of 28th November. This means that Guangzhou have won the CSL, Chinese Super Cup and CFA CUP in one season, the first time to do so since 2012. In the meantime, the president of Evergrade Real Estate Group, Xu Jiayin, awarded the football team a 2.9 million USD (20 million CNY) bonus to celebrate their splendid performance. This is just one small thing that the Evergrande group has done to promote its football club. 

On the journey to a 6th CSL title, Guangzhou has obtained 14.4 million USD (1000 million CNY) in total payments. Every win last season brought the team a 0.3 million USD bonus (2 million CNY), which was increased to 0.7 million USD (5 million CNY) for every game from the 24th round. In addition, every single GD (Goal Defense) earned Evergrande a 0.3 million USD bonus. In fact, their splendid achievements with six CSL titles, two AFC Asian Cup wins and two CFA CUP successes since 2011, are all associated with Evergrande Group’s huge financial rewards. 

Besides these enormous bonuses, the high salaries have been another strong financial support in the promotion of the club. With the stable capital chain from Evergrande Group and Alibaba Group, Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao F.C. has spent 187 million USD (1.3 billion CNY) on salaries to develop the team. 

As of now, at 770 thousand USD (5.3 million CNY), the average salaries of CSL players rank 6th in the world’s premier football leagues. The high expenditure on one hand shows the strong willingness of clubs in the CSL to attract great players from overseas. On the other hand, they demonstrate the increasing price of native Chinese players, who are fostered carefully by Evergrande as a key element to win tight games.

‍‍Proofread by Sean O Diobhilin‍‍

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