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Reports hint of possible Shenhua move to Kunming
Print Edition
THE Shanghai Football Administration Center has said it has not received any application from Shanghai Shenhua about a possible shifting of its base to Kunming in Yunnan Province.
A recent Guangzhou report suggested that the 20-year-old Shanghai club might move the team and its home stadium to Kunming, capital of southwestern Yunnan Province.
The Chinese Super League side finished eighth in the 16-team standing, starting the season with minus six points due to a match-fixing scandal way back in 2003.
Shenhua is reportedly facing financial problems and there have been reports about delays in salary payments which led to key foreign players sitting out of fixtures in the middle of the season. It was also partly the reason why star players like Nicolas Anelka and Didier Drogba quit the club.
A Soccer News report claimed that the Shanghai club’s financial situation was eased after a Yunnan-based enterprise agreed to bail out the club with an investment of 30 million yuan, but added a catch to it.
In return it demanded Shenhua consider shifting its base to Kunming for three years.
Shenhua Shenhua could not be reached for its comments.
Sui Guoyang, director of Shanghai Football Administration Center, said they had not received any application from the club yet about the move.
As per the procedure, a club has to hand in a written application if it wants to change the location of its home stadium. The application is then forwarded to the China Football Association for its approval.
The club also has to go through an obligatory right and debt audit procedure, as well as serve a public notice once it hands in the application.
The fixture for the 2014 CSL season has not been announced yet, though a new season usually starts in March, and transfer window closes a month before.
Fang Yalin, director of Kunming Football Management Center, confirmed in an interview with a local media that they have been in touch with Shanghai Shenhua. Kunming has not had a team in the top-tier league for a decade and Shenhua fits the bill perfectly.
However, Fang said he was not aware of any sponsorship deal between a local enterprise and Shenhua.
Kunming’s Tuodong Stadium meets the criteria for a CSL team, while the city’s Hongta Training Center has always been the preferred choice for the national team’s winter training sessions, thanks to the city’s pleasant weather.
But Shenhua fans find the thought hard to digest.
“It’s a name that has been with us for 20 years... It’s Shanghai’s name card,” a Shenhua fan surnamed Ye said yesterday.
“Hundreds and thousands of hearts will be broken if they really decide to move.”
Shenhua and Beijing Guo’an are the only two teams that have not changed the team name and the home city since the launch of China’s professional soccer league in 1994.
Despite ownership changes, “Shenhua,” which literally means “Shanghai Flower,” has a far more fan base than its local rivals Shanghai Shenxin and Shanghai East Asia.
Shenxin finished seventh in the CSL.
East Asia, a team put in place by veteran Shanghai coach Xu Genbao, finished ninth in the league in its debut season in the top Chinese league.
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