By Michele Tossani for FC Insider
In the world order of football, the Chinese Super League quickly became a factor and one could categorize it as a real competitor for other non-European leagues as MLS, A-League or J-League. This fact raised questions about how exactly the Super League is growing so rapidly compared to for example the American MLS, and if the Chinese premier league can overtake the MLS as being regarded the better outside of Europe competition.
In terms of great players, you simply can’t argue that the Chinese Super League is doing a better job than its American rival. In fact, while the CSL is bringing on a lot of good footballers still on the prime part of their careers (there are many examples that come to mind, from Guangzhou Evergrande’s signing of Jackson Martinez from Atletico Madrid or Alex Teixeira from Shakhtar Donetsk to the recent imports of Gervinho and Fredy Guarin out from the Serie A), MLS, A-League or J-League are attracting players with not too much oil left in their tanks, like Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, or Julio Baptista.
Following country president Xi Jinping’s project, CSL teams opened their paychecks and invested heavily. But that’s not just for veteran players on the final part of their active career but also for those kind of players that would usually be considered MLS, J-League or A-League material. This created a tougher market for CSL competitors as they simply can’t compete with or match the drive with which the Chinese clubs are looking to grow.
Just take a look at the MLS as an example: they lost who was arguably their league’s best player in Obafemi Martins when he decided to leave the league to sign with Super League giants Shanghai Shenhua.
And Chinese teams can spend as they please. On the other end, MLS have rules that limit spending while J-League and A-League simply can not build a team at the CLS’s rate. Each of those leagues are looking to create a football related culture in their countries to compete with European football but they are attempting to do it by different ways.
In effect, CLS is growing quicker under the impulse of Xi Jinping’s government, while MLS and J-League have been growing more slowly, working in markets of countries where football is not considered the main sport.
A-League is even more than a step behind as some of their clubs have recently had trouble paying their players and staffs.
Although some pundits compared Chinese Super League’s growth to that of the ‘70s NASL, this is not the case. The CSL is experiencing a healthy growth and not just as a football giant in the global football market.
The fact the CSL is buying quality players in their prime is just a part of the program. The Chinese are competing for TV rights (the CSL recently signed a TV deal worth $1.25 billion over 5 seasons) and building football academies with the final goal to build a strong World Cup team. Guangzhou Evergrande spent €160 million to build a 2,300 people academy featuring 50 football fields. This is the largest football academy in the world. And other clubs are strongly focused on their youth football programs as well. Some of the CLS teams’ best environments are comparable to the best European training complexes.
MLS, J-League, and A-League simply can’t match those numbers - the CSL is actually running out of reach. The J-League, which is widely regarded as the main Asian football league, is on a different level than the CSL. This is shown by Chinese squads as they usually go deeper in the Asian Champions League than their J-League rivals do.
Working against them is that China is being held back by the fact they lack any big Chinese role model for kids to aspire to replicate. But Chinese football’s ability to produce football icons to inspire kids – just as Japan did with Nakata or Nakamura – seems just a matter of time.
The Australian A-League too can hardly compete. And to make matters worse some of the biggest Aussie names in Matthew Spiranovic, Ryan McGowan, and Trent Sainsbury, recently opted to join the CSL.
In the end, CSL produce and sell a better product than their direct competitors do. Their recent signing of a broadcasting deal with SkySports is just the first of many steps away from their rivals. With some of the worlds biggest rivalries in the Shanghai Derby and the Guangzhou derby now being shown on millions of television screens worldwide, the Super League is about to get a lot more popular.
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