Six shown door in CSL coach cull Patience at a premium in China’s top flight as clubs wield the axe
High expectations in the big-spending Chinese Super League have triggered a spate of firings, with six coaches shown the door in the space of just one month.
More than a third of the 16 top-flight teams have been affected, in a season that has also been rocked by claims of racism and violence.
Jiangsu Suning, which has slumped to 15th in the standings after finishing second last season, became the most high-profile club to axe its coach when Choi Yong-soo departed last week.
Beijing Guoan, Tianjin Teda, Guizhou Zhicheng, Chongqing Lifan and Changchun Yatai have also parted ways with their managers in recent weeks.
It comes as the Super League enjoys unprecedented visibility, broadcasting in Britain and other countries and regions under a new television deal and featuring several big stars, including Oscar and Carlos Tevez.
Chinese teams smashed the Asian transfer record five times in 12 months after President Xi Jinping expressed his aim of transforming China into a global soccer power.
Mark Dreyer, founder of the China Sports Insider website, said the managerial turmoil reflects the rising ambitions of Chinese clubs.
“In the English Premier League, there’s always the managerial sack race — who’s going to get sacked first?” Dreyer said.
“This is just another global football trend that has come to China.
“The fact is that when you have clubs spending a lot of money, the pressure is on for them to perform, and inevitably in football, it’s the manag- ers that get the responsibility.”
The sudden influx of wellpaid foreign players has also created teething problems this season, with Hulk and Ezequiel Lavezzi accused of racism.
Shanghai SIPG’s Hulk was investigated over an alleged racially motivated assault on a rival team’s coach, a claim both he and his club deny.
Lavezzi also caused a storm when publicity photos emerged of him pulling back the corners of his eyelids in a ‘slant-eyed’ pose.
Spending curb
The managerial firings come halfway through the season and as China approaches its summer transfer window, meaning any new coach will have an opportunity to bring in new players and start rebuilding his team.
However, they could find their spending limited after China levied a 100 percent tax on transfer fees for loss-making clubs, in a bid to rein in player purchases.
Seventh-place Beijing Guoan got rid of Spanish coach Jose Gonzalez after it lost to Chongqing Lifan on Friday, its fifth defeat of the season.
“Right now the team is going through its most difficult period but we are confident we can quickly get back on track,” the club said, announcing the dismissal.
Jia Xiuquan of Henan Jianye, meanwhile, quit to “assume responsibility” for his team’s poor ranking after 12 matches.
Henan is 14th in the standings, just above second-frombottom Jiangsu Suning, a club owned by Suning Commerce Group, which also bankrolls Italy’s Inter Milan.
South Korea’s Choi decided to “terminate his contract in advance”, according to Jiangsu, less than a year after he took the reins.
His departure was announced last Thursday, one day after Jiangsu’s AFC Champions League exit at the hands of Shanghai SIPG.
Choi, who has gone back to his old team FC Seoul, said foreign coaches were not entirely to blame for the lack of success by their Chinese teams.
“Chinese players’ understanding (of soccer) is relatively weak” despite the clubs’ high-quality facilities and coaching staff, he was quoted by the South China Morning Post.
“If you use the same tactics, Korean players will carry it out 85 percent of the time, but Chinese players will only carry it out less than 60 percent of the time, and that makes it hard for foreign coaches to display their ability.”
Two-time winner Guangzhou Evergrande was drawn against Shanghai SIPG in a blockbuster, all-Chinese AFC Champions League quarterfinal on Tuesday.
Evergrande, which won the Asian title in 2013 and 2015, will play SIPG — its closest rival in the Chinese Super League — over two legs in August and September.
Japan’s Kawasaki Frontale also drew fellow J-League team Urawa Red Diamonds at an Asian Football Confederation ceremony in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
But in the West zone, Saudi sides Al Hilal and Al Ahli avoided each other as they were drawn with Emirati outfit Al Ain and Persepolis of Iran respectively.
The all-Chinese clash, pitting Luiz Felipe Scolari’s Evergrande against SIPG, which is coached