Wed, Mar 10, 2021 page16

• Chinese fans forced to suffer team’s collapse in silence

  • AFP, SHANGHAI
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  Fans of Chinese soccer champions Jiangsu say police have warned them not to protest or “make trouble” after the club’s abrupt financial collapse, and describe themselves as angry, heartbroken and powerless.

  Jiangsu said that it had “ceased operations” after its backers, retail conglomerate Suning, who also own Serie A leaders Inter, pulled the plug on Feb. 28.

  The club’s sudden implosion came just more than 100 days after Jiangsu won the Chinese Super League for their first domestic title and highlights wider problems undermining China’s bid to be a leading soccer country.

  

  Supporters of Jiangsu cheer for their team during their Chinese Super League final against Guangzhou in Suzhou, China, on Nov. 12 last year.

  Photo: AFP

  Irate supporters have pledged to boycott struggling Suning.

  A small group of fans were last week pictured on social media, their faces blurred, outside the Nanjing-based club with a banner reading: “Hot blood is hard to cool, defend the Jiangsu team.”

  Liu Yu, a member of a fan group of more than 400 people, said supporters also lobbied outside Jiangsu Province’s government sports office.

  However, they have now been warned by authorities against more protests, especially with the annual National People’s Congress under way in Beijing.

  “The police called the people in charge of fan groups and told them not to go there anymore because gathering is not allowed, so there’s nothing they can do now,” the 31-year-old accountant said.

  Liu said that she has “a very strong sense of powerlessness” and can only stand and watch as the club she loves — which was founded under a different name in 1958 — disintegrates.

  Jiangsu have not officially disbanded, but that appears certain to happen, which would make it the highest-profile casualty among more than a dozen Chinese clubs to disappear in little more than a year.

  The speed at which Jiangsu went under after the biggest triumph in their history, is especially hard for fans to bear.

  “I feel that something very close to my heart suddenly disappeared,” Liu said.

  Another fan, who did not wish to be named — underlining how even soccer can be sensitive in communist China — backed up the assertion that “people in charge of the major fan clubs received calls from the police and were asked not to make trouble.”

  Chinese state media has tried to cast Jiangsu’s demise, which is expected to soon be followed by that of fellow Chinese Super League outfit Tianjin Tigers, as a chance for Chinese soccer to reset after the heady days of big spending on foreign stars.

  Bereft Jiangsu supporters do not share that optimism, but their opinions have been given scarce coverage in the heavily vetted Chinese media.

  A Jiangsu supporter who asked to be called “Oscar” went with friends to the club just after its bombshell announcement. They were confronted by five security guards who stopped them taking photographs.

  The 25-year-old said that he never trusted Suning and felt the soul of his club was ripped out when it took over in 2015 for 523 million yuan (US$80.26 million at the current exchange rate).

  His skepticism about Suning was proved right, he said.

  “Everyone knows it now,” he said, calling the company’s treatment of the club “disgusting.”

  “So everyone who used to support Suning has started to boycott Suning together,” He said. “For some fans, perhaps for me, the team may be their biggest emotional support. It disappeared so suddenly.”
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