The Bizarre Rise & Fall Of The Chinese Super League

In January 2016, the Chinese Super League set three new transfer records in the space of ten days, with the arrival of Ramires, Jackson Martinez, and Alex Teixeira - the last of whom had been sought after by Premier League giants in Liverpool and Chelsea.
Two of those three transfers, including Teixeira, were signed by Jiangsu Suning, who spent more than €100 million that transfer window, in a bid to challenge the likes of Guangzhou Evergrande, Shanghai SIPG, and Hebei China Fortune.
Jiangsu Suning were dissolved in 2020, immediately after winning the Chinese Super League, and Guangzhou Evergrande and Hebei China Fortune got relegated in 2022 - so in this documentary, HITC Sevens takes a look at the rise and fall of the Chinese Super League, the league's biggest and richest clubs, and the reasons behind it.

[@MrAtzu]

Their strategy of signing players from Europe on massive wages in order to boost the popularity of football in China could actually have somewhat worked if they had managed to sign genuine superstars like Ronaldo, Neymar etc. I doubt many Chinese fans were hyped to see Graziano Pellè or Marouane Fellaini play.

[@Timliu92]

Agreed. This strategy IMO will actually work in Saudi Arabia because besides football already being quite popular in the country, someone in the calibre of CR7 is also playing there despite his age. Your average Joe or Josephine who is not into football at all would not care much about Hulk, Oscar or Ramires playing, as talented as they were.

[@rayzhang7591]

The thing is, soccer was extremely popular in China already. Not as popular as basketball, sure, but there were many people in china following soccer religiously even before the crazy investment began. What really hurts Chinese soccer is the extremely poor performance of the men's national team, which is getting worse and worse every year despite the alleged insane amount of spending.

[@johnmitchell2269]

@@Timliu92 And when Ronaldo retires and no big names are playing in Saudi Arabia then what? All of it, the Chinese league and the western Asia leagues, it's all short sighted short term stuff that will never be sustainable in the long run.

[@johnmitchell2269]

@@rayzhang7591 More people in China watch European football than Chinese league football. That has and never will change.

[@rayzhang7591]

@@johnmitchell2269 oh for sure lol.

[@erikthehalfabee6234]

Where football and politics intersect that's where you'll find Alfie. Love this channel.

[@georgejungle138]

He sounds like a communist though

[@RonaldinhoPMP7000]

As a Chinese football fan, I witnessed the rise of Guangzhou FC Club from 2010 to 2015. They won the AFC Champions League in 2013 and 2015. I still remember that in 2013, when I was a junior high school student, all the boys in my class watched Guangzhou FCVS a Korean club in front of TV. We used to think that Guangzhou FC was the hope of Chinese football. Unfortunately, after the epidemic, the real estate company that sponsored them went bankrupt, and the team lost its leading position. However, I think they bought foreign countries at high prices, just like Saudi Arabia now

[@mikhailarcade3254]

And today, they relegated. I watch GZE when they qualified for club world cup.

[@renzobaas236]

my absolutely favorite part of hitc sevens is the quality and length of tangents that introduce the topic.

[@martinmcwilliams]

It’s crazy how this league just imploded.

[@mitchconner2021]

China's economy has done the same.

[@Micfri300]

Whilst i didn't see clubs going bankrupt i could see this foreign purchases dramatically falling.

[@MrSmith1984]

@@HITC_SEVENS Any particular reason to why you are Trolling then?

[@MrSmith1984]

The trouble with Xi is that he doesn't realise that building a successful Football Culture takes decades of investment, not a mere few years. Although I suspect the real reason why the Chinese Government have pulled out of funding Football is how much of that funding ultimately ends up outside China. Hence why they have cracked down on other overseas investments by Chinese Companies.

[@toddxhiggins]

@@MrSmith1984 bro it's an obvious fake account

[@SomeoneFromBeijing]

Chinese fans call Tevez “Disney” because instead of training with his teammates, he would bring his wife and kids to Shanghai Disney. Chinese fans know most Chinese players suck. So in a way, Chinese fans expect these overpaid foreign players to be more than just a player. They expect 120% from these players. This is why players like Renato Augusto and Eran Zahavi are so much loved by the fans- they would keep running and keep fighting until the final whistle. As a fan, the madness in Chinese football since around 2014 was just ludicrous. But a few clubs, including my hometown club Beijing Guoan, managed to not spend as much but still remain competitive. The winner of the 2022 season is Wuhan Sanzhen. They were competing in the second tier just the season before. And their success, at least according to many Chinese fans, is because they were able to pay their players on time. Just think about how crazy that is. Hebei FC’s negative 3 points tally is the direct result of a points deduction due to them failing to pay their players’ wages on time. There are rumours saying Guangzhou FC and some of their elite domestic players reached a deal- no wages for the 2022 season in exchange for contract termination at the end of the season. Alfie, if you want to cover the true madness of Chinese football, the 2022 CSL season should definitely be on your list.

[@oliverallen2565]

Sad

[@josephpotter7776]

If you go 3 months without wages fifa will release you from your contract anyways

[@Jolgeable]

Renato Augusto was playing for Corinthians, from Brazil (my favorite team) before he moved to China. He's back, and in 2023 he started this season as the most important player, commanding the midfield. But he had an injury on his knee, and he will be off for many months. =(

[@SomeoneFromBeijing]

@@Jolgeable I love Renato Augusto. All of Beijing Guoan fans love him. He’s such a passionate player, and he always gives 100%.

[@BlackstreetBoys2Men]

Do you use Guoan in FIFA career modes ? I was thinking about doing a manager career in China

[@sheldon97sheldon]

"And no, before any of you say it, this wasn't my longest ever introduction, that is still the Suriname video, I checked" That's why we love you, Alfie, your crazily long introductions and waffling about completely unrelated things mid sentence is all part of the charm.

[@miguelm9190]

i just went to check the suriname video and this video´s intro is acually 2x longer lol

[@NazriB]

Lies again? AMWF CHINESE

[@Triantalex]

false.

[@luishernandezblonde]

You have to remember that the explosion and fall of the Super League coincided with China's very pathetic forms in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers. Despite high World Cup bet, China suffered an agonising elimination on their own Lunar New Year's Day to Vietnam in the decisive game, a game China must win to maintain any chance of qualify, even this was already slim due to defeat to Japan. Instead, that defeat to Vietnam was a humiliating welcome to the country's Lunar New Year and an end to the country's 2022 WC quest. The defeat to Vietnam was so disheartening that football fans in China went uproar on their social media demanding the whole Chinese FA to resign. Ironically, what happened to China forced Mexico, a country far away but with a historically insane football passion, to reassess their football league Liga MX. The Mexicans suspended promotion and relegation for six years, starting from 2020, to investigate clubs that could potentially go bubble and collapse for this exact reason of financial mismanagement - something the Chinese Super League clubs suffered. The Mexicans clearly did not want a similar China-like football chaos. So far, the result was rather a mixed bag.

[@Not_Sal]

The Liga MX situation deserves its own video

[@josee855]

@@Not_Sal really hoping that alfie can make a video about it one day

[@brandonblanco8379]

Only problem is that it reduced competition with the abolishment of promotion/relegation. Imagine the Premier League or la Liga suspending relegation?

[@luishernandezblonde]

@@brandonblanco8379 Unfortunately, some Mexican clubs have disappeared, in particular recent years. I think about the case of Veracruz for example, used to have a strong football tradition and won two Mexican first division titles, but folded in 2019 due to debts. This is not a surprise why Mexico is trying to avoid the Chinese path.

[@brandonblanco8379]

@@luishernandezblonde Spain has promotion/relegation and yet they don’t have teams getting disappear.

[@arze1226]

You had video about biggest stadiums that host "smallest" clubs. Maybe you can do other way around. Biggest/most successful clubs with smallest home stadiums.

[@theultumateprezes6379]

If he does, I hope Raków Częstochowa will make the list.

[@BootlegSonicToy]

Santos Stadium has less than 20k seats

[@yannick245]

@@BootlegSonicToy Yeah, I never get that. Juventus Turin stadium is also fairly small.

[@HDxvies]

Speaking about West Brom and how there Chinese owner is still in power. The club Recently took out a £20 Million loan to fund “day by day activities”. We’re already £10 million in debt as our owner has not repaid any of the loans he’s taken!!! Not looking good financially for West Brom right now. Would be good to see a video from hitc sevens about my club as even though we’re in good form on the pitch upstairs is a shambles. Lai out!

[@AdminAbuse]

Their*

[@kunikloy477]

Fun fact, when chinese FA made the rule that one match each team need to have at least two Chinese U23 players played the game, the manager will sub on the youngster in 90th minute, or be subbed off minutes after the game started. And half decent U23 players become extremely expensive.

[@rayzhang7591]

Ah Suning, my hometown team. Still remember listening to the live match reports on the radio when they were called Shuntian. It's a shame that they came to an abrupt end.

[@cnachopchopnewsagency]

Dont you blame your government for that?

[@ashleyburns6752]

This city I used to live in (Taizhou) had a team go up three divisions in four years, was building a huge stadium, and had players like Tosic, then suddenly went out of existence. The government has the power to do that in China, so you can never really relax or make long term plans. I still have a Jiangsu Suning jacket I bought in 2018, weird wearing clothing of a team that does not exist anymore.

[@freddiemercury2075]

One day when you wake up china might not exist anymore. The government of china has the power to make the government of other countries do that to them.

[@ethanqian1862]

Taizhou Yuanda？

[@gm2407]

Just say your clothing is vintage.

[@ashleyburns6752]

@@ethanqian1862 yep

[@mrwhoannon300]

Why would you go live in that communist shit hole 😵‍💫

[@tanveerali1]

Hats off HITC Stevens, this was a highly informative video. One suggestion, will be nice if you change the monotone for the entire length of the video.

[@Ariurotl]

I'm frankly surprised that China didn't manage to improve the national team standard much despite investment, because I am keenly aware of how bonkers their athletic reserves are and how quickly they can muster up competitive athletes seemingly out of nowhere if the Party wills it. Here's a little story. I'm a longtime follower of biathlon, and about 15 years ago (give or take, it's all a blur by now) China suddenly decided that they want a competitive presence in the sport, specifically women's. An astonishing season followed, with numerous Chinese biathletes nobody had previously heard of suddenly challenging for top 10 (which is high in biathlon) on a regular basis. Utterly bizarrely, when a leg of the World Cup was held on a relatively hilly track with a tricky but not horribly bad downward slope, pretty much ALL of those athletes just couldn't handle it, falling left and right. They were very fast on the skis, very good at shooting... but apparently nobody taught them a way of navigating a slope! Then, over the next few years, the Chinese interest waned and now we barely have any Chinese presence in the sport again. Had they persisted, they surely would have a World Cup winner or an Olympic gold medalist by now, probably more than one. China is ridiculous, man.

[@edmundbloxam2714]

I wouldn't be surprised if their national team improved a bit. It just takes significantly longer than 5 years for children at soccer schools to become adults.

[@92Psyco]

"Teach the skiiers how to shoot, and teach the shooters how to ski! We're sure to find somebody who can do both!" "Comrade chairman, what if they have to ski around corners?" "No worries! See those tracks in the snow? It'll help them turn like train tracks!"

[@oliverallen2565]

Sad

[@zondor8123]

Ain't no way I'm gonna read all that, but good luck for your life! Best wishes

[@brendanzhang7488]

sometimes they steal atheltes from other countries, like eileen gu, who was born in America, they persuaded her to come and even gave her parents jobs at prestigious university and her a big salary

[@albertmiller2electricbooga897]

I love Alfie's style of video, it really takes you on a journey and idk abt others but I get really into the little subplots and silly jokes along the way

[@Linkinbassist]

Calling out other content creators for engaging in sportswashing was something I didn't expect, but I am glad you have done so. The amount of content that glossed over the blood spilt to get the Qatar WC tournament up and running was just an abhorrence. Thank you for the reminder.

[@user-te1le7ck6b]

Alfie is in no position to judge morality given his biased and lopsided content at times

[@Linkinbassist]

@@user-te1le7ck6b Don't make me tap the 'Equivocation does not equal balance' sign.

[@e-money9251]

@@user-te1le7ck6b that’s the west for you

[@KingChaddii]

@@user-te1le7ck6b where when how

[@_Jakay_]

@@user-te1le7ck6b How is that in any way comparable?

[@LucasOliveira-tt2ll]

thank God the big spending from China ended, I couldn't stand to see call ups for the national team featuring players from Shanghai Shenhua, Beijing Guoan and others. Funny that in the 90's many players weren't called for Brazilian national team because they chose to head to Europe instead

[@jacobbyrd2055]

I don’t claim to be an expert on global politics but I was super impressed by Alfie’s quick summary of China as a whole’s economic struggles. Summarized it almost as good as my professors

[@nathanolson3135]

I was not impressed

[@thatoneundertalefanatic]

@@nathanolson3135 congrats,buddy. Want a pat on the head?

[@rafaelcabete63]

Your channel is without a doubt the most informative and educational, great video!

[@anamitrasikdar9115]

Make a video on Juventus and the crisis they are going through.

[@ezraezra2928]

This is a big thing everyone wanted, especially after the club was punished with a huge point deduction as a result of corrupted transfer incident.

[@MD0100]

I can't wait for the same documentary on The Saudi Pro League to come out in 5 years

[@banditonehundred]

Yeah, you can’t just buy yourself a World Cup. First create a culture for the sport

[@timliu4028]

Beijing Guoan fan here, we used to have Renato Augusto, Kim Min Jae of Napoli now, Jonathan Vieira, Cedrick Bakambu, now we have Mark Dabro up front… it’s really been a fall from grace

[@Boobiejonshorts]

As a new football fan, I'm absolutely loving your channel man. Thank you 🙏

[@michaelay4900]

As a Hong Konger watching this video, I have so many things to say. But I am too lazy to type all of those so just one simple sentence: Thank you Alfie

[@ilarash]

WOW... This was freakishly shocking. My respects for the thorough research on this astounding piece of journalism!

[@dantrizz]

Excellent timing to bring this out on Chinese New Year. 新年快乐

[@chinedudokai1060]

you are good.... very good. the amount of research you must have undertaken to produce this video must be staggering... scary... HARD!!! Good job.

[@ToxicayeAI8]

If you go to any family in China a lot of them would say that, even if they have a talented child, education is the key to success and it’s not wrong, but it’s the fact that we are late bloomers and parents have not changed there views since then. Also it’s expensive(pitches lessons etc.) But there is a lot of passion

[@JSL2000]

Top marks to The Chinese FA for putting salary caps in place. The way it was going previously was a straight road to everyone going bust.

[@BALHAM69]

a documentary on the afc Wimbledon on the nine promotions in eleven years, how they’re a fan own club and how they have a stadium in plough lane now. The story of they lost the club, how the F A allowed that and won’t allow that anymore. How they were very close to moving to ireland How they went up the English football leagues. It would be a good documentary video if you can do this. #thepeopleschannel

[@aravindk.s2330]

Hasnt this already video already been done

[@BALHAM69]

@@aravindk.s2330 fake accounts everywhere everybody

[@caesar-dynastysports]

What day are you on for this? 1,200 ish?

[@BALHAM69]

@@caesar-dynastysports i don’t spam this It’s up to Alfie what he wants to make in videos i would throw some suggestions in as a viewer

[@FozzQuaker]

Come on Alfred 🙏🙏🙏 Do it for young Balham here :-)

[@anthonyjudeaggabao2302]

Honestly sounds like a pretty complicated plan for world football dominance than just paying FIFA execs to host a world cup and paying extra for David Beckham to promote it. But honestly, China already has the MLS and Brazil to follow. They have the funds to accelerate to be in that position

[@MikoyanGurevichMiG21]

The Saudis just payed Cristiano Ronaldo extra to promote theirs, lets see where that goes now.

[@BoliveiraNTPW]

@@MikoyanGurevichMiG21 i think that unfortunately the 2O3O World Cup will be in Saudi , FIFA doesn’t care anymore , they don’t care if everyone will know that they were payed to give Saudi the WC.

[@Luckymag-if4dw]

Being fair, that should be a limit to how many foreigners a team could field or have in their squad, just for the sheer principle of a national league, not that I'm against capitalism or anything but in my opinion when it comes to sports you should be mixing things up ans actually stablishing limits. Like, what europe's richest clubs do is basically the same, it is just seen as normal coz it has been the status quo for much longer, but imagine when ot first started happening in the 80s and 90s how fucked up it was for south america, given Brazil is bigger and better at football than anyone in UEFA and they were weaking their league coz of money. So I won't feel sorry for anyone really, for example how was Liverpool bigger than Santos by 1990 for a plauer to prefer playing there? As good as they were Santos was still objectively the much bigger institution up to that point, then globalization exploded and english clubs moved more money. Maybe for eurocentric fans this is no big deal, for a true football fan it bothers me not only coz of the giants of Brazil, Argentina and others but for the fact that african club football won't ever be as strong as it should be or that back in the 70s, 80s and 90s the biggest clubs in netherlands, russia, serbia or romenia could play at a much higher level against the other top clubs. That Bosnan law was the worst thing that has hapened to football, every single fan from a european giant tjat complains about City, PSG or Chelsea are crazy, literally every big club even if they already had a good amount of tradition basically are a big ass multinational company. Liverpool literally won the CL, meaning being the chanpions of europe with over half their XI not being even european. That is just wrong in my opinion, obviously with the way the world is now I have no problem with you having a lot of foreigners but that should be regulatioms to keep some principles I like

[@enthusiastofcute]

@@BoliveiraNTPW they’ve never cared, unless something happens to threaten their money then nothing will ever change

[@KK-ro7gx]

@@MikoyanGurevichMiG21 Arab club well represented fifa club World Cup. They reach the final to fought Real Madrid. And the club are 3rd in the league.

[@travislevison6074]

Fantastic video yet again Alfie, fascinating how quickly the government u-turned on their approach

[@allonfernandes9743]

I'm really excited about the future of Chinese football. I can't wait to see what comes out of the new academies and football schools.

[@dimitrioskoukouras2777]

Pretty good video, accurate in terms of the CSL, but you need to make a video on a deeper level for the Chinese football. You will be amazed by the effort put in to growing the football culture in China, but also by the obstacles for achieving the dream of becoming a powerhouse. If you need more insides, let me know

[@nathanb286]

I swear I don’t see Oscar in China until he spawns with a TOTS at the end of the season

[@marcel_kleist]

TOTS

[@nathanb286]

@@marcel_kleist That is what I meant

[@mafiousbj]

Here In Argentina we remember that Donda contract....we assumed they though every Argentinian player must play like Maradonda so they chose someone with a similar sounding surname. We called him "Maradonda" from then on

[@OfficialFingazMC]

Haha nice pop at Thogden!

[@jediknight5600]

Moral of the story is that if you have THAT much money to spend and government incentives, you're better off investing it at grass roots level - like seeds. Then just be patient. There is no other way.

[@erickd8a]

As a fan of a league with a ridiculously high number of foreigners and that is renowned for not giving youth players the chances to break into the first teams, all of these changes that the Chinese Super League is making sound like positives and like the CCP has recognized that massive spending at the league level for foreign superstar signings is not the way to grow your national team and quality of your players

[@gm2407]

Probably because it was a huge drain on liquidity of the state owned businesses.

[@erickd8a]

@@gm2407 whatever it may be, it’s a better approach than the previous model

[@ecogolfsierra]

make a video about the last time every pl club was in the second division and how that season turned out to be

[@therealuncleowen2588]

Any player in their prime who turned down a move to a big European club in favor of a move to a Chinese club, clearly doesn't care about winning as much as they care about money. If I were a national team manager, that player would be devalued hugely in my eyes. Either stay domestic or play for the strongest foreign league that wants you. Or you know, play for a Chinese club with no soul and never win anything that matters.

[@exsandgrounder]

Money does matter. Footballers will retire in their mid 30s, few will continue to work in the game so they need money- and hopefully they’ll have been sensible with it- to take them into life post football.

[@marcusaurelius49]

In my 50 decades on this planet, I have seen many new sports leagues come and go. The reason they all fail is the same : they over promise and over-spend

[@supersasukemaniac]

I think alot of the issue with the Super League is indirectly, or even maybe directly,a result of China's "Zero Tolerance" policy as it relates to the pandemic. Alot of the teams had to se off the big name forgeiners due to tight finances, and a few even had their ownership company go belly up.

[@PhillipMuchiri]

Great content only problem is having to watch this using 1.5x playback just to save on time.

[@jameshuggett]

2 factors. There is a mass interest in football in China. Passion, ultras & stadiums pretty full before covid. There is a massive lack of grass roots coaches. Parents will easily give up on their kids development with a lack of school & local young teams.

[@ian-flanagan]

Great video! But if you do another on China, please let me help with pronunciation; my ears just took a real beating! Local fans’ perception is that the main problem is corruption: you can only play for a CSL club if you buy your way in, or know someone. There’s a recent meme video of “What if Messi was born in China?”. Long story short, he ends up as a delivery driver. If that’s true, you can fix it by “inviting a few people to tea” as they say, rather than spending billions abroad.

[@ianmacfarlane1241]

World's best delivery driver though...

[@therealuncleowen2588]

@@ianmacfarlane1241 A legend

[@reintaler6355]

Lol did you deliberatly post this on the Chinese New Year's Eve

[@DynamicUnreal]

They would have done way better if instead of spending that money on big name players they would have instead bought out almost every single gifted 17 year old Brazilian and Argentinian at bargain prices and brought in high quality international coaches and trainers to help facilitate their development. Incorporate their most gifted young Chinese with their young phenoms from abroad and hope that by constantly playing them with and against each other the Chinese international football ranking would improve. Some of those international prodigies would grow to be superstars and sell them for massive profits to European Clubs. But no, they literally did the opposite. 😐

[@OtakuVonBismarck21]

Video idea - The story of Perugia undefeated run in Serie A 1978-79.

[@SeanRJC]

saddest part is the easy money from transfers on fm is gone

[@livwake]

saudi pro leagueeee

[@Brian_nld]

40 minute documentary this is Hitc Sevens heritage

[@satorudo]

This kind of thing plays out all the time in China if your paying attention. Basically once a certain sector get “too big” the central government realizes that that sector and the people in it are getting too powerful. That’s because in China “money is power”. It’s why the financial sector got curb stomped when it tried to do its own Venmo/PayPal to bypass banks. It’s why the entertainment sector got “taxed” when it was making way too much money and all the big film studios and actors suddenly got audited. It’s why suddenly video games are ultra restricted needing “approval” for any and all games. Basically it ensures these industries basically stop making money, so that the party members that are entrenched in those industries don’t get funny ideas that they can buy their way to the presidency

[@johnathenjencks4356]

China's economy will never overtake the US as of how we're currently doing. Easiest explanation is that 30% of China's economy is considered "Speculative" this means that the value of it is opinionated rather than solidly valued.

[@1.4billion65]

Solidly valued? Chinese products are the real thing, US dollars are printed.

[@Stampistuta]

These are great. Please do a video on the miracle of Castel Di Sangro.

[@depekthegreat359]

I am totally disappointed with the ways that the owners or investors who invested too much of the money to just to get more foreign market policies just to desolate the Chinese football on the whole to corrupt the sport over there mainly in gambling,thus the collapse of the league over there is insane to say the least,good friends!!!🙏

[@aquaowouko5295]

If you compare the Premier League's spending to that of the other top European leagues, you'll agree that Teixeria's comment though blasé was spot-on.

[@gm2407]

Well it is more that the Premier League had to build up the TV contracts and foreign investment to get that far. Before the EPL it was Seri A where the money was. Ultimately China effectively instructed all their big state owned companies to invest in football. But if you want to just leave it at more money throwing weight around I understand that.

[@romelrubio1821]

This is why MLS was cautious of expanding too fast…

[@m.c.martin]

They’re also don’t have Promotion and Relegation so teams don’t have to worry about going broke for that

[@HalfGodHalfManYourWelcome]

The competition starts, and I mean really starts, when other clubs figure out how to sell their clubs out to Oligarchs, Sovreign Wealth or Consortiums followed by better negotiations for TV rights. All of that "the Premier League is the best League in the world" nonsense washes away.

[@ShreyaanSeth]

pls make a video on indian football and all the chaos that happened last year, itd be pretty interesting to look into and see in video essay form

[@freddiemercury2075]

Hi HITC, can you make a video about what happened to Singapore football ? We were at least decent or even good enough to compete against Thailand and Indonesia but these days we can't even beat a war torn country like Afghanistan and Myanmar.

[@deathkampdrone]

Rise and rise... I dunno about that. Economically being able to draw in footballers for way too much money isn't the same as having an attractive league. So was it really the rise of the chinese super league, or in reality just a rise in wage for a couple over the hill players alongside some players who simply couldn't turn down such an offer? Ask Al-Nassr FC in a couple years, and we'll see if the Qatari league is still on the rise, or they just have some cool names on their "former players roster". Always great entertainment from your channel, HITC Stevens! Appreciate the work you put in! :)

[@ryanwibisono4147]

Your pronunciations on the Chinese clubs is truly something to admire

[@minainside5166]

this league was actual getting exciting and then boom implode

[@dancarey7204]

The way you weave football and politics is Messi like.

[@hieuhaang8802]

You should do a video about Wuhan Three Towns, it is a pretty interesting club.

[@hieuhaang8802]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@declangaming24]

They want to sign all my players on loan

[@zscout370]

Hebei FC and Guangzhou City FC both dissolved this month. Those two, along with two other clubs from the 2022 season, dissolved.

[@gamewithgreg]

14:35 wow, I didnt realise that Darío Conca was the 3rd highest player in the world. Its amazing how his club were able to stretch him to make him that much taller. Unless you mean they rehoused him in the Bolivian mountains, and that's how he was the 3rd highest. Erm hang on, unless you mean 3rd highest PAID 🤔

[@JayTechZM]

14:43 "Third highest footballer" Honestly that killed me out of context 🤣

[@NanobanaKinako]

Now make a video about the Philippine Football League and how the the most successful team, United City has fallen.

[@JoDyMa]

DAY 91: Hey Alfie, could you do a video on the life, career, controversies and tragedy of Justin Fashanu. It'd be your best video yet and it's a criminally underheard story ❤️

[@gameanimeking]

I have read you can buy a spot for the national team in China, which is mad considering a popular and well cashed player could outbid a true football star there. They should send players abroad and let the grow in European academy and clubs so they can grow the right way. Many will wither away but the few who shine could literally pull their national team to a world cup at least. Honestly they could make a Chinese super league work again but they could also implode once again.

[@cupertinoish]

The chinese people only cared about the betting side of football. Everything in their professional football business is about the gambling business. The initial success was never going to be sustainable when their match fixing became too much.

[@TheReddShinobi13]

You should do a video on the rise of vietnam football. Maqwell did one too, but I'd love to hear your views on the fast rising league

[@bobobob9084]

Yet another banger. Comment for the algorithm.

[@soundprint]

買大名球員係無可厚非，但一睇聯賽背後既資金，16隊頂級聯賽球隊有12 隊同地產有關，政府要打擊樓價，資金鏈斷裂，即時陷入財困。 還有貪污問題，嚴重影響整個聯賽以至青訓系統，青訓，有錢才有得出場或試腳，不是唯才是用，而是唯財是用，真正好波之人永無出頭。

[@russellliban76]

No wonder JDT easily beat Guangzhou Evergrande 5-0

[@ezraezra2928]

Even Indonesian football couldn't manage to beat the weak Chinese team!

[@R3in_Ch]

@@ezraezra2928 when does any indo clubs play in the asian champions league let alone winning Afc cup ? 😜

[@ezraezra2928]

@@R3in_Ch At least, until all problems non-related to football like hooliganism are solved. Indonesian football are still hit by a major crisis after Kanjuruhan. Even though the national team had two major events, the U-20 World Cup and Asian Cup, we might not expect that they will play better. Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand might write a history in the AFC Champions League, but they really need a good competitions for achieving such a great dream like reaching the World Cup for the first time. The 2026 has an expanded format, so it will be a good time to see the Southeast Asian nations playing in the biggest sporting events around the world.

[@Rmat7]

It's mind blowing how fast things rise and fall in china. It's almost like fast forwarding through a movie

[@qp4590]

It's a glorified Simcity speedrun-much like Singapore-main difference being China is so large it is larger than all of the US.

[@cnachopchopnewsagency]

@@qp4590 nope. Singapore is not like China. Singapore, if they stay, they will consistent. China in other hand, too much government intervention in everything even in sports. Nothing grows from that

[@mentality-monster]

Great video mate. 👍

[@letmechillhere6059]

Whoah from what happened to Alex Teixeira, i can understand why Mudryk was signed by Chelsea for 100m… Shaktar’s board have a large say in their palyers transfer destination i reckon

[@tailingeraldlee926]

Hi. You may consider doing a segment on football leagues in Southeast Asia too. Thank you.

[@arzhi_azis]

Day 382: Indonesia XI If All Eligible Players Had Declared For Them.

[@zuesnastrio3062]

The team would still be shit

[@BigSmoke2.20]

No

[@FlamingBasketballClub]

Just stop at this point nigga 😂

[@brandonblanco8379]

@@BigSmoke2.20yes

[@slayingroosters4355]

@@brandonblanco8379 I mean, it's an HITC7s video so I'll watch it but, are you really interested in that? 😂

[@itsalonglongroad4472]

Hi I know u probably won’t see this but could u maby think about doing a video on Birmingham city like u did with ur team hull becuase it’s not looking good for us blue noses and wanna here ur view on it especially after seeing the protests today at blues KRO

[@suavenanave9468]

I actually loved what China was trying to do, they were ambitious and they had money to put on the table but they just didn't knew how to spend the money. Making Tevez the world most well payed player and he couldn't almost run anymore. China just doesn't know football.

[@lambokiller99]

Wrong, tevez was coming off his best season at juventus after reaching the UCL final and was one of the top 10 players in the world when he left to China.

[@suavenanave9468]

@@lambokiller99 this why I think people should have a license to talk about football, Tevez was in Argentina at Boca Juniors. Do your search at least if you don't know. Google is free.

[@hudson7354]

Meanwhile Chinese ownership of European clubs has been a disaster. They are terrible businessmen and have destroyed WBA, Villa, Inter, AC Milan and Birmingham City. They are truly awful owners.

[@kjkokekhkiklkl]

Considering FOSUN still have control of Wolves which now has a traditional Spanish structure (alla Sevilla and Betis) its interesting to see that they probably went for Wolves for more than just a political order, Chinese mega companies being more and more detached from the state as they invested in western companies is a reality in some occasions. FOSUN have sanctioned another £200m this summer for Wolves if they stay up to push forward under Lopetegui. Interesting to see how Lai has gutted West Brom

[@grokopf142]

Great video!

[@Stopreadingmyusername23]

I really hope a league outside Europe one day rivals the top 5

[@ancientadrian514]

That will be MLS. After the 2026 WC.

[@allanbejarano9075]

@@ancientadrian514 not even close mate

[@livwake]

My moneys on the MLS or Brazil league overtaking Ligue 1

[@ryanevans126]

​@@ancientadrian514yh that growing really good league

[@augusto2006-amg]

They should have implemented a salary cap in my opinion just like MLS or something. It probably would have made them financially responsible

[@FlamingBasketballClub]

Nah. Chinese Super League would have still been corrupt.

[@Kenny-Blankenship]

and now Wuhan Yangtze River was dissolved, too. They were supposed to play in League One next season, but I guess the owners gave up. The 2022 League One is looking more like a graveyard as well. Kunshan, the champions that were supposed to play the Chinese Super League this year, were dissolved. So were Shaanxi Chang'an Athletic F.C., Zibo Cuju F.C., Beijing Sport University F.C., Xinjiang Tianshan Leopard F.C., and Beijing Institute of Technology F.C.

[@Joziff_]

I think their idea of buying overseas clubs to see how it’s done and how the countries do it etc would’ve worked if they gave it more time. In my opinion a couple of years won’t teach them anywhere near enough to compete with the powerhouse countries

[@1908fcim]

Now Suning struggle to spend €50 let alone €50m

[@parkerchen17]

One thing to correct, SIPG does not pay that luxury tax for signing Marco Anautovic, that means, according to the rules, they should be deducted maybe 24 points or more. And that is because their former CEO was appointed as the chairman of the Chinese FA.

[@RyuzakiTaiyou]

Best German players in the premier league of all time. (Day 448) I will not give up until the video is made or Alfie himself tells me to stop. Everyone else telling me that will be ignored. If you don't believe my number, just go back to the previous videos. I'm at the bottom most of the time, but I'm there.

[@DNnebby]

Legend

[@torernning8652]

Get a life, this is just sad.

[@epicsink]

might as well just research it yourself at this point

[@kadenyungkwok3653]

chad

[@howgoodistravel]

Keep going all you want - problem is that it's a boring video.

[@asminde]

Cant wait to see the beef videos between Alfie and Thogdon😂

[@rwalker0130]

Carlos Tevez, probably an average player at the time, was making 33 million pounds a year in a country where the average person makes $4534 a year. the average for his home country of Argentina is only around $5124 so how crazy rich would this dude be in China or Argentina after only a couple years! thats insane.

[@BeatLabStudio2024]

Whole lotta corruption, the club in my city, Shenzhen FC, brought Juan Quintero in 2021, who is one of the best Columbia footballer in 2018 if u don't know. And since he did not fit the tactics and also other players are much worse than him, he played very bad. And at last he left the club with only 1 goal in 3 years but still earned a lot of money. This is because the sponsor thinks buying famous foreign players can make the club to the top of the league so they agree when the CEO says the club need a world-class player. However the CEO can get a lot of money if he spend money on buying certain players, many players' agents will give huge kickbacks to the CEO. So whether the new player fit the team or not is not the key, they just want money. (Also since the sponsor went broke and the club is now considered to be related to match-fixing, the club may not exist next year)

[@400Awesomo]

I have no sympathy towards Chinese club. By the way, I am Vietnamese who was born in England.

[@StefFTW99]

9:49 mate if you think that is bad you should look into Romania's fall from grace on an international level especially because last time Romania was in the world cup it was back in the 90s when Hagi was still playing

[@soundscape26]

Both Romania and Bulgaria... with Stoichkov being their Hagi.

[@StefFTW99]

@@soundscape26 let's not forget about Hungary they had Puskas

[@ShadeyFella]

Chinese football is an example of how forcing football pedigree and culture by government mandate on a country with little to no football pedigree and culture leads to failure and billions wasted.