China's Communist Party forcing investors to pull money out of European football

A few years ago, China was aiming to become a major player in world football. International stars were lured to the domestic Super League and investors bought up European clubs. This is all over.

Imagine the following scenario: Borussia Dortmund win the Bundesliga and then a few months later are banished by the German Football League (DFL). Sounds unthinkable, right?

Not so in China. There, Jiangsu Suning were still celebrating winning the championship in November when the eastern

Chinese club had their license revoked. The Chinese Football Association was out to make an example of the club.

As recently as 2014, the powers-that-be in Beijing issued an agenda aimed to make China a football superpower by 2050 — and wealthy investors quickly set out to invest in football both in China and abroad.

"The problem is, it became clear to the Chinese government that there weren't going to be the financial returns, or the playing returns associated with making such an investment," British sports economist Simon Chadwick, who teaches at Emlyon Business School, told DW.

Aging European and South American stars such as Marek Hamsík, Carlos Tevez and Hulk were attracted to the Chinese Super League by high salaries.

In the meantime, Beijing has made a U-turn and initiated a major decommercialization of the game there. Among other things, the professional clubs have had to remove the names of owners from club names, which is how Jiangsu Suning

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