Evergrande aims for world class in 5-year

Top Chinese football club Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao held a meeting on Thursday focusing on future plans for the new season.

Xu Jiayin, the club's Chairman, stressed that the strategic goal for the club is to catch up with the top football clubs in the world and become a world-class club in the next 5 years.

The new plan will be launched this year.

In the meantime, a set of new rules on the management of the football teams in the new season was also announced.

The new rules include that players must take part in closed training in five days' time before the AFC Champions League matches, while unnecessary communications with the outside world are strictly prohibited before important matches.

The plan for awarding bonuses to players has also been released.

During AFC Champions League, the bonus for a winner will be 3 million yuan (about 480,000 US dollars), while for a draw in a match will be 1 million yuan.

Three million yuan will also be awarded for each goal difference, and 10 million yuan will be awarded for advancing to the next round.

Defending champions Guangzhou Evergrande was eliminated by Western Sydney Wanderers from Australia in August last year and failed to reach the AFC Champions League semifinals.

The Chinese Super League champions was ranked 4th among Asian clubs, according to the Asian Football Confederation rankings released in December.

Original title by CRIENGLISH.com:Guangzhou Evergrande Aims for the Sky in 5 Year Plan