China’s most successful team kicked out of professional football

BEIJING: Guangzhou FC, China´s most successful football team and former Asian champions, have been thrown out of the country´s professional leagues because of “heavy historical debt”, the club say.

The effective demise of the eight-time Chinese Super League (CSL) winners, once managed by Marcello Lippi and also Fabio Cannavaro, signals the end of an era in the domestic game in China. Dozens of Chinese clubs, including fellow former CSL champions Jiangsu Suning, have folded in recent years in debt.

“The club tried various means to gain access to the professional league,” Guangzhou FC, formerly known as Guangzhou Evergrande, said. “However, because of the heavy historical debt burden, the funds we raised were insufficient to clear them.” The Chinese Football Association (CFA) excluded Guangzhou from a list of 49 teams included in China´s professional leagues for 2025.