The Chinese Super League is taking babysteps toward being a credible sports organisation, though it clearly has a ways to go based on a recent incident involving Axel Witsel.
The footballer Qin Sheng won't be known by most in Europe, but he has been capped 10 times for China since 2012 and plays with Shenua Shanghai. His club were playing Tianjin Quanjian recently, the club who pay Belgian star and good guy Witsel €20m per annum. Well Qin and Witsel got involved in a tussle in the box in said game, and Qin Sheng impudently stamped on his opponent's foot.
The CSL, where a stamp like this sees you relegated to the reserves on minimum wage for the rest of your contract. https://t.co/cPeoOvmX4T
— Rupert Fryer (@Rupert_Fryer) March 13, 2017
Qin Sheng was subsequently sent off, which was probably fair enough (that said, we do wonder how Kevin Friend would have officiated the incident). It's interesting to see how Qin's teammates helped walk him off the pitch though. Clearly, they saw no point in protesting.
What followed, though, showed the insanity of the CSL. Qin Sheng, as Rupert Fryer suggests in the above tweet, has effectively been placed on permanent suspension by his own club for the stamp until his contract expires, with his wages cut. He can't leave the club and can't play with the senior team until his contract expires.
The club savaged their player in a ridiculous official statement, claiming he was on a warning and on the verge of undermining the entire CSL project with his behaviour.
"The extremely irrational behaviour of Qin Sheng has severely tarnished the image of this club, the football of Shanghai and even Chinese football.
"All the efforts made by others have gone down the drain because of him.
"The extremely irrational behaviour of Qin Sheng has severely tarnished the image of this club, the football of Shanghai and even Chinese football.
"All the efforts made by others have gone down the drain because of him.
Yet as one Chinese Super League Twitter account suggests, Witsel was giving as good as he got.
Yet Witsel gets away with a clear elbow to the face later in the game on the basis he's foreign.
— China football news (@china_football) March 13, 2017
If there was ever a doubt that a double standard existed between the millionaire galacticos and the Chinese players in the CSL, here is damning proof.
