Chinese fans value club identities

Hong Kong – When the Chinese Super League (CSL) kicks off its 2021 season much will have changed since Jiangsu Suning defeated Guangzhou Evergrande to claim their first title in early December.

The imposition of a neutral name rule, first mooted two years ago by Chinese football authorities, means professional clubs must remove references to corporate sponsors from team names and crests ahead of the new season, which is expected to start in April.

Seen as an attempt to cool corporate involvement in the sport that fuelled a massive spending spree on foreign and domestic talent over much of the last decade, the move has met with a mixed reaction.

Fan groups from five clubs – Tianjin Teda, Beijing Guoan, Shanghai Shenhua, Henan Jianye and Zhejiang Greentown – banded together in a bid to convince authorities to allow teams to be more flexible.

“If the authorities really cared about football and understood the culture of football then if you’ve had the same name for 20 years you shouldn’t need to change,” says Shanghai Shenhua fan Lu Xiaoming.

Beijing Guoan fans paid to have defiant messages carried on the sides of buses in the hope of retaining the club’s name, while fans of Henan launched protests outside their stadium.

Tianjin Teda fan Sam Wang recruited foreign players who had previously played for the club to create a video calling on officials not to forsake their history.

“Football should be the people’s game, it’s from the working class and this rebranding means what I feel about Chinese football has completely changed,” Wang said.

Pressure to drop the names of corporate sponsors has been seen as a positive move.