New League Guide: China

FMM19 New League Guide: China

We have two new and exciting nations added to the game this year with Russia and China now being available to play. This guide will take a look at how the Chinese leagues work, the finances of the clubs and who are the star names.

I have also written a guide for Russia and that can be found by clicking the link here

History of the League

China has had a national football league since 1951 but the Chinese Super League wasn’t formed until 2004 as a 12 team league in an attempt to up the standard of Chinese football. It has since been expanded and now has 16 teams taking part.

Two Chinese clubs have won the Asian Champions League. Guangzhou twice and Liaoning once.

The top 2 most successful teams

1.     Guangzhou – 7 league titles

2.     Shandong – 3 league titles

Most League Appearances

Yang Zhi – 350 – Guangzhou, Beijing (still playing)

All time league goal scorer

Han Peng – 88 gls in 242 games (still playing)

 

League Format

The Super League and the First Division are both playable in game.

Chinese Super League

·        Number of Teams: 16

·        Number of Matches: 30

·        Asian Champions League Qualification: The top 3 qualify for the Asian Champions League Group Stage and 4^th place goes into the Asian Champions League Playoff depending on who win the Chinese FA Cup.

·        Relegation: The 16^th and 17^th placed teams go down automatically.

 

Chinese First Division

·        Number of Teams: 16

·        Number of Matches: 30

·        Promotion: The top 2 teams go up automatically.

·        Relegation: The bottom 2 teams get relegated. The team that finishes in 14^th qualify for a relegation playoff against a lower league side.

Cups

China has two cup competitions. The Chinese FA Super Cup is held between the league and cup winners at the start of each season. The Chinese FA Cup is played through the season and the winner qualify for the Asian Champions League Playoffs.

Club Budgets and Facilities

Over the last few years Chinese football teams have been famous for splashing a lot of money in an attempt to attract top players into the league. Every club in both divisions are listed as rich but there is quite a gap between the transfer budgets available and the wage budgets so some moving around of budgets may be required to make sure you can afford the wages of players you bring in.

Facilities wise some of the clubs look pretty good and others are absolutely awful. I have used the games own colour coding system of red and green to show who has the best and worst.

Disclaimer: The budget of each club depends on your starting reputation so these figures should be used as a guide.

Chinese Super League

Chinese First Division

Star Players

The Chinese Super League is a strange mix of very average local players and then high quality imports from Europe and South America.

Hulk: The Brazilian powerhouse plys his trade at Shanggang and even at 31 is still a cut above most of the division.

Oscar: Another Brazilian attacking midfielder who is a cut above is former Chelsea man Oscar who is also at Shanggang.

Alexandre Pato: They really do love a Brazilian in China. Once touted as one of the worlds best strikers its has gone downhill for Pato in the last few years. Unbelievably he is still only 28 and plays for Quanjian.

Javier Mascherano: In a league that focuses its resources up front Javier will stand out as one of the best defensive players. Now 33 he plays for Huaxia.

Potential Wonderkids

With so much empathise put on signing established names the CSL is a bit of a wonderkid wasteland but I have found a few talented youngsters.

Pedro Delgado: The 20 year old Portuguese playmaker moved from Inter Milan to Shandong for this season and hopefully there good training facilities will help him develop.

 

Chen Shildong: The 21 year old Chinese Yiteng striker is considered one of Chinese footballs great hopes for the future.

Roger Guedes: The 21 year old Brazilian winger is on loan at Shandong from Suo Paulo but the Chinese club do have an £8.5M buyout clause if they wish to make the deal permeant.

I hope this short guide has given you some idea of what to expect if you decide to manage in China this year. Let me know if you decide to and who you aim to take to glory.

Thank you for reading.

[Ashez]

Thanks for the heads up Foxy, I can't say I knew much about China before reading this

[Scratch]

Woohoo!!! Hebei China Fortune F.C. (Huaxia) here we come!

I used to live in Langfang (the city they are based in).... Not that I knew of the team before Googling it just now - I lived there before they were founded in 2010 and I can't remember the stadium being where it is. Actually looks like a lot of the city has changed since I left in 2008. 

Maybe I'll go with Beijing, as I went there a lot on weekends (it was about an hour away) and I actually know where the stadium is... Or Guangzhou Evergrande as I lived an hour away from there as well... 

Decisions, decisions!  But a 30 game league would be tough for a 1KC so there's that...

[henda666]

have a try！

[BatiGoal]

Doubt I'm ever going to enter this league to test my skills tbh unless it's for a community challenge. For that reason alone any new league addition is a bonus. 

Thanks Fox. 

[ZenPancakes]

I'd be willing to give this league a go, something different to fool around in and be relegated lol

[Aaron55]

Trying to develop a team of young Chinese players and building a World Cup winning squad around them could be a fun thing to attempt 😁

[FuddledFox]

I have now added the clubs budgets and facilities to the OP 

[Ashez]

Those budgets! Granted the wages will take some tinkering but wow!

[Scratch]

22 minutes ago, Ashez said:

Those budgets! Granted the wages will take some tinkering but wow!

Yeah... And I can't see any limitations on signing foreigners (that I think exists in real life). So.... It's only a 30 game league, but this could be the place for a 1KC. You could build a high quality squad, playing against mediocre defenders and goalies... 

[Scratch]

Well, there goes that idea...

[Scratch]

From Alari (not pinging him, he's busy enough!) in the bug channel:

Quote

I think the issue here is that 'Interested' is showing too many players. Young players are not going to want to move to China, it's lucrative but also the death of a European career.

Re work permits, there are pretty restricted rules for foreign players. We don't support squad quotas which is why the work permit rules are quite harsh.

So, it's going to be hard to do a 1KC in China with a foreign player - they aren't going to want to come.

Also, it's interesting how they got around the lack of quotas in FMM, by making the work permits really hard to get. No exactly reality, but given they aren't going to put quota in FMM, that's probably the best thing to stop it becoming totally distorted (like I was planning with a 1KC).

Edited November 2, 2018 by Scratch

[FuddledFox]

On 02/11/2018 at 02:05, Scratch said:

From Alari (not pinging him, he's busy enough!) in the bug channel:

So, it's going to be hard to do a 1KC in China with a foreign player - they aren't going to want to come.

Also, it's interesting how they got around the lack of quotas in FMM, by making the work permits really hard to get. No exactly reality, but given they aren't going to put quota in FMM, that's probably the best thing to stop it becoming totally distorted (like I was planning with a 1KC).

I thought China would be the go to location this year for a 1kc with all the money sloshing around and pretty weak teams but maybe that won’t be the case which is a shame.

[Scratch]

4 hours ago, Foxy said:

I thought China would be the go to location this year for a 1kc with all the money sloshing around and pretty weak teams but maybe that won’t be the case which is a shame.

Yeah, to be honest I would have started already if I could have gotten a young striker over there. Now, I'm not sure if I'll play here which is a shame... Maybe they will relax both the young players not wanting to sign and the work permit situation in updates, but I'm hopeful.