Last weekend, Sky Sports aired its first two episodes of Chinese Super League football. The decision to acquire the UK rights for the league was announced last week and Sky has made a quick turn around to get Chinese football on our screens.
Over the weekend, Sky Sports subscribers were treated to the Shanghai Shenhua vs. Jiangsu Suning on Saturday and completed their offering with Sunday’s encounter between Guangzhou R&R and Shanghai SIPG.
The games themselves were very high scoring affairs, with Shenhua beating Jiangsu 3-2 and the Sunday game ended in a 3-3 stalemate. Making the CSL’s debut on UK television a dramatic one. The games were largely befitting for European audiences played with great excitement; the game featuring Guangzhou R&F and Shanghai SIPG was played with great pace and was reminiscent of late 90s flair play.
Premier League fans have become used to watching games including lead changes, hattricks, and penalty decisions. That’s the nature of the Premier League, it’s appeal is built on the hysteria that comes with it. This game had all three aforementioned facets including a frantic culmination which any football fan would have found entertaining.
Sky Sports’ decision to procure the CSL rights may have come as a result of BT’s ever-growing collection of top-flight leagues, considering they have the Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1, Sky may have felt the need to capitalise on a league which is constantly in the media eye.
The CSL will see this as a major appointment in their quest to promote their league internationally. This television deal presents the chance for growth in international appeal. Sky made the unusual decision to start airing the league when two-thirds of the season have already been played. The season runs from March to November, so could fill the summer void of football in non-tournament years – complimenting Sky’s existing deal with Major League Soccer which also has a summer schedule.
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Hulk, who now plays in the CSL after breaking the Asian transfer fee record.
The only question is over the viewership and how it will rate against other leagues?
Can fans in the UK look past the usually negative media connotations which the domestic journalists write and watch about the league?
The league is certainly the subject of speculation over its exuberant transfer fees, after all, the league transfer fee record has been broken four times this season so far. The most recent occasion was back in July, when Hulk, signed for Shanghai SIPG for a crisp €55.8 million from Zenit St. Petersburg, which even broke the Asian transfer fee record.
The very presence of some the signings will provide key development for China’s home-grown talent. The league is undoubtedly full of money, yet should this really cause a boycott from European and UK audiences? Sky will be looking to present the Chinese league in an accessible manner which breaks down such preconceived opinions. After all, European football is usually the beneficiary of CSL spending henceforth funding European football, whilst jump-starting the quality and star power in its own league.
It is increasingly difficult for Premier League fans to cite money and big transfer fees as a reason to not watch the CSL, especially with Paul Pogba being the subject of a potential £100m+ transfer fee and other contemporary transfers which would present double standards. England and the rest of Europe have been spending a lot of money for a long time, yet China has until recently had not invested in football.
Now, in the times where Chinese businessmen find themselves among the richest in the world, they too want a slice of the football investment game.
The money is proving a real incentive for attracting quality players to the league. Alex Teixeira famously turned down the chance to play for Liverpool, instead choosing to play for Jiangsu Suning.
Alex Teixeira, who sparked controversy when opted for the Chinese Super League over the Premier League.
The whole event of a Chinese Super League game is quite the spectator sport too; the fans turn out in mass numbers and pre-match formalities are rather interesting. Before kick-off, every player and official on the pitch turn 90 degrees to look at a flying Chinese flag. After which the national anthem is played and all those within the stadium sing along to a rendition of “March of the Volunteers”. A moment of pride as the country is celebrated before the game.
Sky are set to bring one of Asia’s showpiece leagues to the UK football audience. If done correctly this could help widen the appeal the league and stop some of the unfairly attributed criticism.
Like it or not, China is investing and investing hard in football, so much that top players are now prepared to spend their prime in China, ahead of European leagues. This is certainly the hotbed of Asian football and it is expanding at great speed.
It’ll be interesting to see how the league is spoken of after Sky Sports have broadcast a full season when football fans have been exposed to a whole term of CSL action.
Chinese Super League makes an impressive UK debut, but it’s already so last season. You’ve probably never heard of the new best league
Just as the CSL makes ground in the UK with the introduction of British broadcaster Sky Sports’ live coverage, the hipsters’ choice is the next league down
If I needed proof that the Chinese Super League really has become international then I got it the most unlikely of places: US immigration. Talk with the agent turned towards football and his interest in the CSL became apparent – as a Seattle Sounders fan he took an interest in their former striker Obafemi Martins and his fortunes at Shanghai Shenhua – but he seemed to have more than a passing knowledge of the game.
There must be many more like him and not just in the US. Now that Sky Sports have started broadcasting the CSL in the UK, games now come with English commentary and the league has a chance to truly enter the mainstream.
This weekend saw the first games to be broadcast on Sky Sports. The first was the game between Shanghai Shenhua and Jiangsu Suning, which ended in a 3-2 comeback win for the Blue Devils. Those who tuned in saw a late winner from Freddy Guarin and Martins score his fifth of the season. They also saw Guarin convert a penalty that the Nigerian had won and a brace from his compatriot, Suning’s Colombian Roger Martinez.
In Sky’s other game, Shenhua’s rivals visited Guangzhou to meet R&F. They went one better, sharing six goals in a dramatic draw that was notable for a pair of late penalties – one for each side – and Shanghai SIPG’s Chinese international winger netting a hat-trick to move into joint third on the goalscoring chart, just two behind the injured Demba Ba, cementing his place as the top Chinese scorer.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Alan Tyers wrote of the CSL’s British TV debut that, “Basically, it’s the Premier League, and Chinese football is probably here to stay.” They also referred to Shanghai SIPG as SPIG, though.
As exciting as the games are – there hasn’t been more than one 0-0 draw in a round of CSL matches since week nine – the league itself appears to be almost wrapped up already. Guangzhou Evergrande are ten points clear at the top as they close in on their sixth league title in a row. They also have a game in hand.
The same can’t be said at the top of China League One. As every football fan knows the Championship is more exciting than the Premier League – and the same is true for their Chinese equivalents.
Sure, there is excitement in the top tier thanks to the race for the places in the AFC Champions League. But that’s nothing on the race for the CSL happening in League One.
Only two teams go up to the top tier but right now that could still be any two of the top half of the division.
Whoever comes up stands a great chance of doing some real damage in the top flight. Evergrande won the league their first year back (and every season since), SIPG quickly became title challengers in their second season and Hebei China Fortune FC are thriving in their debut season.
Meanwhile, at the wrong end of the table, bottom side Hunan Xiangtao are well adrift with just 10 points from 20 games but Shanghai Shenxin, the current occupants of the other relegation spot, are just a point away from safety and a win from being 12th on the 16 team table.
Shanghai Shenxin manager Gary White, who took over earlier this season, is one of many interesting characters throughout the league. The Englishman was previously manager of the Guam national team following stints as boss of both the Bahamas and the British Virgin Islands.
Further up the table his counterparts in the dugout are some much bigger names.Shenzhen recently hired ex-AC Milan coach Clarence Seedorf and he has taken the club to fourth in the table in his brief time. He’s joined by another couple of Serie A stalwarts.
Former Juventus defender Ciro Ferrara is the new coach of midtable Wuhan Zall, while Fabio Cannavaro, once of Guangzhou Evergrande, is currently masterminding Tianjin Quanjian’s title tilt.
There are further European links. Since Barcelona’s football school, FCBEscola, opened in Qingdao last year and since then Qingdao Haunghai have employed former Barcelona B coach Jordi Vinyals. They have also changed their kits to match the red and blue of the Blaugrana.
China League One has everything that the Chinese Super League has and then some. It’s just as goal-laden, for starters. There’s also a similar amount of money flowing around – Tianjin Quanjian made Zhang Lu the most expensive Chinese keeper ever in the preseason window.
Now that the CSL has hit the mainstream, China League One is the thinking fan’s way of proving their credentials and impressing the football hipsters. Seeing as the top flight has a week off what better time to start?
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