CSL Company hosts shareholder conference and names new President

According to a report by the Beijing Youth Daily, Chinese Super League Co., Ltd. (CSL Company) recently held its shareholder conference on Feb 28, where the Chinese Football Association’s (CFA) Vice-President Li Yuyi was named as the new President of the Company. 

Li Yuyi becomes the fifth President of the CSL Company following Nan Yong, Yang Yimin, Yu Hongchen and Ma Chengquan. Li has been focusing on the domestic professional football leagues and youth football development since the second half of 2017. According to the Beijing Youth Daily becoming the new CSL Company’s President will enable Li to lead the management and operations development work of the CSL.

The newspaper also disclosed that in 2017, the net revenue of CSL Company saw an increase of nearly RMB 100m more than 2016, giving the 16 clubs in the league a dividend of around RMB 74m on average. 

Despite being hindered by the CFA’s policies regarding player transfer, CSL clubs did not use this windfall to get more aggressive during the recent winter transfer window which closed on Feb 28. The German website Transfermarkt has released a rankings list of the income and expenditure of global football leagues over the winter, in which the CSL ranked 4th with an accumulated expenditure of €149.72m. 

However, this figure for the accumulated expenditure was the lowest over the past three seasons, making up 35% of the total expenditure in 2017. During this winter transfer window, Cédric Bakambu was the most expensive player costing Beijing Guoan around RMB 40m. 

Only four newcomers received an 8-figure contract this winter - Cédric Bakambu (€40m, Beijing Guoan), Yannick Ferreira-Carrasco (€30m, Dalian Yifang), Nicolás Fabián Gaitán (€18m, Dalian Yifang) and Jonathan Viera Ramos (€11m, Beijing Guoan). 

Regarding the expenditure of every CSL club, Dalian Yifang who will return to the top-tier CSL this season spent a total of €53.75m on buying players, topping the 16 clubs in the league. However, the highest-spending club, Hebei China Fortune, paid €77.69m last winter to bring in players. 

This winter, Beijing Guoan’s expenditure on buying players was €51m, ranking the club 2^nd of the 16 clubs. To many people’s surprise, the remaining expenditures of the 14 CSL clubs this winter were all below €10m.  

Source: Beijing Youth Daily & Tencent

Proofread by Raymond Fitzpatrick