Chapter 732 - 657: Exploiting a Loophole

Chapter 732: Chapter 657: Exploiting a Loophole

"What’s wrong, Old Yan? Calm down first."

After Yan Shiduo hung up, Li Yuanwei asked with concern.

Yan Shiduo’s expression was grim. He beckoned his secretary over and whispered a few instructions before composing himself. In a frustrated tone, he said, "It’s about Jiang City. That Chen Xudong... he’s really created a problem for me."

"The Huanghelou Club?"

Li Yuanwei asked curiously what was going on.

"Don’t even ask." Yan Shiduo sighed and began to explain.

Pioneer’s commercial success had led the other clubs in the league to follow suit.

Although Vieri ended up with Shen Hua, Chen Xudong hadn’t given up hope.

Pioneer was raking in millions from ticket sales for a single match, and he was green with envy.

’I can’t afford a three-million-euro Vieri, but isn’t a 200,000-euro Christopher Dugarry a fantastic bargain?’

The 33-year-old Dugarri had long since left the Five Major Leagues, moving to Qatar to cash in on the twilight of his career. But he was, after all, a starting forward for the France Team that won the ’98 World Cup—a top player once dubbed "a poor man’s Zidane."

He was already planning to retire this year.

Just then, a soccer club from the far East extended an olive branch, offering him the exorbitant fee of 200,000 euros for a single match.

That’s right, for one match!

The plan was for Dugarri to arrive in Jiang City on June 23rd, complete his registration as a foreign player with the Huanghelou Club, and then a week later, on July 1st, play for Huanghelou at the 60,000-seat Jiangcheng Sports Center.

After the match, Dugarri would collect his fee and be on his way. 𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂

He was required to play the full match, though scoring wasn’t mandatory. He also had to participate in a fan meet-and-greet. Furthermore, the Huanghelou Club would temporarily hold the licensing rights to his number 21 jersey, allowing his fans to purchase them and wear them to the stadium in support.

Two hundred thousand euros, after taxes, for just 90 minutes on the field—plus airfare and accommodations.

Dugarri, whose career was already fizzling out in Qatar, gleefully signed his name on the contract.

On their end, Huanghelou immediately followed up by launching a promotional campaign to build hype.

They even had a slogan ready.

Pioneer has Batty, but we have Dugarri!

"Two hundred thousand euros for a single match?" Li Yuanwei’s eyes went wide.

’Two hundred thousand euros... that’s a full two million yuan, after taxes. Since when did Huanghelou have that kind of money?’

’Weren’t they so poor that their club was based out of a residential apartment complex?’

"But more importantly, are they even allowed to do that?" Li Yuanwei pressed.

"Just flying someone in for a single game... What does that make the league look like? A professional competition or a charity exhibition match?"

Yan Shiduo sighed in frustration. "That’s precisely the problem."

Chen Xudong essentially acted first and sought approval later.

By the time Yan Shiduo heard about it, Chen Xudong had already started his promotional campaign.

The reason he dared to pull a stunt like this was that he’d found a loophole.

Normally, the player transfer and registration window for the 2005 Chinese Super League season ran from January 10th to January 25th.

However, those dates only applied to domestic players.

This year, not only was the foreign player quota increased, but an exception was also made allowing foreign players to be registered separately and handled on a case-by-case basis.

The official documents didn’t specify a deadline for foreign player registration.

The Football Association had actually done this to accommodate Chen Yu.

Pioneer was planning to bring in several top stars like Batty, as well as players like Albertini, who couldn’t join the Chinese Super League until July.

If they couldn’t be registered, it would have interfered with Chen Yu’s plans.

So, they left this backdoor open, using deliberately vague standards.

Otherwise, Batty and Kaginya wouldn’t have been able to make their debuts in May, several rounds into the Chinese Super League season.

But what the Football Association hadn’t anticipated was that Chen Xudong would also use this to exploit the same loophole.

Well, this is just great. The foreign players have become true mercenaries, here to play a single game. Anyone who didn’t know better would think he was just making a paid appearance at a commercial event.

Li Yuanwei was speechless. Chen Xudong had to be the first person to ever exploit a Football Association loophole like this.

It also put him on high alert.

A similar situation could easily happen in the CBA.

’Fortunately, our season hasn’t started yet,’ he thought. ’We should be able to close this loophole in time.’

"But what’s his goal in doing this?" Li Yuanwei asked, confused. "What could he possibly gain?"

Two million yuan to play a single game was simply unimaginable.

For a 90-minute match, that’s an average of over twenty thousand yuan per minute. The figure was staggering to even think about.

Yan Shiduo had completely calmed down by now, having already mulled it over. "What else?" he said. "Money."

"Last time, he even sent word to me through Old Li, urging us to pay out last year’s broadcast revenue share. They’re really, truly desperate for cash."

They’re the only team in the entire Chinese Super League whose headquarters is in a residential complex, a team without even a proper training ground.

The Chinese Super League!

It was a sad state of affairs just to think about.

"Pioneer’s results in the league aren’t anything special, but they’re masters of commercial development. They have a proven track record. Just look at their ticket sales—every match is a sell-out. They make millions in ticket revenue from a single home game. Who wouldn’t be envious of that kind of income?"

That was about as much as Huanghelou made from ticket sales in an entire season.

Li Yuanwei fell silent at that.

Soccer stadiums could at least hold tens of thousands of spectators. But basketball? Many teams’ home arenas could only accommodate two or three thousand people.

Ticket prices could be as low as a few yuan, so a whole year’s ticket revenue was basically peanuts.

Five million in ticket revenue from a single game was something many teams couldn’t even dream of.

After all, for many CBA teams, their entire annual budget was only five or six million yuan.

And the crucial part was, even then, they weren’t profitable. Out of more than a dozen teams in the league, not a single one was spared; all of them were losing money.

It wasn’t until the ’03-’04 season, when Hongyuan won their first championship, that they finally turned a profit of one million yuan. Even so, they became the first profitable basketball club in the history of Chinese basketball.

A million yuan in profit for an entire season... when you thought about it, that was just as pitiful.

Yan Shiduo continued, "Look at how Chen Xudong is handling this. He’s requiring Dugarri to do a fan meet-and-greet, getting the jersey rights, and immediately renting out the sixty-thousand-seat Jiangcheng Sports Center. He’s learning directly from Pioneer!"

"This is Dugarri we’re talking about. For a one-off match, just for the publicity stunt, he might actually be able to fill the stadium. With a 60,000-seat stadium, even at fifty yuan a ticket, he’ll make his investment back!"

"Add to that the fan meet-and-greet, jersey sales, and a cut of other commercial activities... he could at least double his initial investment. Do you think he’d pass that up?"

Even if he only nets two million, that’s enough to get the lines painted on their training field, fix the AC in his office, and maybe even pay out some more player bonuses.

Li Yuanwei frowned. "I still think this is getting farcical," he said. "If this is allowed, what will the league turn into? The entertainment industry? Is it all just about making money?"

Yan Shiduo shot back, "Isn’t the whole point of commercialization to make money?"

Li Yuanwei was stumped by the question and started to hedge. "Old Yan, I can’t help you with this one. You’ll have to make the call yourself."

With that, he quickly walked away.

Chen Xudong finalized the deal with Dugarri on June 5th. The promotional campaign began on the 7th, which is when Yan Shiduo got the news.

But as of the 15th, the Football Association still hadn’t issued a clear statement on the matter.

Chen Xudong, determined to create an irreversible situation, ignored the silence and pushed forward with his plan.

This defiant attitude immediately put the other teams in the league on edge.

Yan Shiduo’s silence was taken as a green light.

’If Huanghelou can do it, why can’t we?’

’We might not have millions of euros to throw around, but a few hundred thousand is no problem.’

On June 16th, Capital Guo’an made a shocking announcement: they too had an opportunity to sign a world-class star, another number 9, also from Argentina.

Some fans quickly guessed who it might be.

Hernan Crespo, on loan to AC Milan!