CBA, CSL in limbo as nation reinforces blanket suspension
China’s national sports governing body on Tuesday ordered all major sports events to remain suspended indefinitely because of the coronavirus pandemic, leaving the country’s basketball and soccer topflight leagues facing lengthy waits before they can return to action.
The Chinese Basketball Association’s league had hoped to resume play in mid-April but was denied government approval to do so. Instead, China’s General Administration of Sport issued a statement saying any large sporting events that draw crowds “are temporarily not being resumed”.
Doubts had already been raised over the proposed CBA restart in the wake of the ban on foreign nationals entering the country, which came into force last weekend and means many teams are still without their quota of foreign players.
The governing body did not give a timeline for when the suspension might be lifted, but said it will “make timely adjustments according to the epidemic prevention and control situation”.
“For better epidemic prevention and control, no major sports events like marathons which gather crowds of people should resume,” read a GAS statement.
The missive singled out China’s soccer and basketball associations amid speculation that both could be nearing a resumption of action.
Soccer’s Chinese Super League season was supposed to begin on Feb 22 but was indefinitely postponed in January by the virus outbreak. Clubs have returned from training camps abroad and had been endeavoring to prepare for a return to action in recent weeks.
The CBA has been suspended since Jan 24.
The league is reportedly considering a proposal to bring all 20 teams to one or two cities and play the remainder of the regular season in empty arenas.
Most teams have 16 regular-season games left to play, with Xinjiang and Qingdao having 17 games remaining.
The southern city of Dongguan, Guangdong province, and the eastern coastal city of Qingdao, Shandong province, have been mooted as possible locations for the games, which would take place in a strictly controlled environment and under the supervision of health professionals.
The CBA was previously under pressure to restart and finish the season before the Chinese national team’s Olympic qualifying tournament, which was scheduled to start on June 23.
However, last week’s decision to postpone the Tokyo Olympics until next summer gives the league more leeway.
The CBA’s handling of the situation will be keenly monitored by other major leagues around the world — including North America’s NBA, which is currently suspended and figuring out how best to proceed in a safe way.
China has lifted some of the controls that locked downs tens of millions of people for two months as it tries to revive the world’s secondlargest economy after successfully containing the outbreak.
In anticipation of a possible restart, teams had begun recalling foreign players, including the Beijing Ducks’ American star Jeremy Lin, who has observed a mandatory 14-day quarantine since returning to the capital on March 19.
However, many teams remain without some of their foreign players, coaches and backroom staff — a situation that is mirrored at CSL clubs.
According to industry analysts Lanxiong Sport, 35 out of 71 imported players signed up with CSL clubs for the 2020 season had made it back to China by Friday, while 21 of 46 foreign players and coaches hired by 20 CBA teams had returned before the deadline.
Even having acquired Chinese passports, some of the country’s naturalized soccer players, such as Guangzhou Evergrande’s Brazilborn striker Ricardo Goulart, have been told by clubs to stay put due to the reduction in the number of international flights departing for China and the risk of infection during long trips.
Shanghai SIPG’s Oscar, Hulk and new signing Ricardo Lopes, however, all managed to beat the ban on foreign arrivals, with the Brazilian trio officially arriving in Shanghai at 11:49 pm last Friday — 11 minutes before the start of the new regulations, which are designed to stop the flow of imported virus cases.
All three are now under quarantine, as is Shandong Luneng’s Marouane Fellaini. The Belgian former Manchester United midfielder became the first CSL player to test positive for the virus upon his arrival in China on March 22.
Wu Lei is the only member of China’s national soccer team known to have contracted the virus. The Espanyol striker is recovering under quarantine at his home in Spain.