Felicio Brown Forbes (front right) of Qingdao Hainiu FC vies with Huang Jiahui of Dalian Professional FC during 2023 Chinese Football Association Super League (CSL) 29th round match in Qingdao, east China's Shandong province, Oct 29, 2023. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

In what will be seen as another blow to the country’s beleaguered domestic game, Dalian Professional, an iconic Chinese Super League club, announced on Wednesday that it is to disband due to financial difficulties.

“After great effort by joint parties, we still cannot solve the club’s historical debt problem, and we are unable to maintain the regular operation of the club. The club failed to pass the necessary thresholds for league admission for the 2024 season. It’s a pity, but we are no longer able to fight together with our fans and supporters anymore,” read the club’s statement.

“We are grateful to the friends who have followed and supported us. And we want to extend our deepest thanks to all our fans! The blossom will eventually turn into dirt, and the rain will drop into river and sea.”

The club finished 15th in the 16-team CSL last season, and faced relegation to the second division. The team made the decision to quit the new campaign before the next season kicks off in March.

Dalian Pro, which was previously known as Dalian Aerbin and Dalian Yifang, was formed in 2009. The club was once coached by former Liverpool and Real Madrid manager Rafa Benitez, and fielded expensive imports such as Marek Hamsik and Salomon Rondon

The news of Dalian Pro’s disbanding instantly became trending news on Chinese social media. The hashtag “Dalian Pro disbands” had been viewed over 19 million times on Weibo as of Thursday morning, with countless fans, not only of Dalian, expressing their frustration.

“To the city of Dalian, the absence of such a soccer team is a tragedy, and the tragedy is too realistic ... Actually, there are many banners from fans across the city. These banners read, ‘To keep Dalian Pro is to keep hope’ and ‘Defend Dalian Pro and defend our city’,” read a commentary in Soccer News.

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“The club sponsors have met financial problems themselves, and it’s impossible to deal with all problems in a short period of time. The historical debt is too large. Some of the huge contracts the club signed back in the days of unbridled spending in the league, became too heavy a burden to bear and eventually crushed the club.”

Dalian Pro, which was previously known as Dalian Aerbin and Dalian Yifang, was formed in 2009. The club was once coached by former Liverpool and Real Madrid manager Rafa Benitez, and fielded expensive imports such as Marek Hamsik and Salomon Rondon.

However, the growing financial burden made it increasingly more difficult for Dalian to maintain its lavish spending and star-studded squad, causing it to struggle both on and off the pitch in recent seasons. 

According to media reports, over the past four seasons, a total of 39 clubs, at different levels of the professional game in China, have called it quits

Dalian is not the only club to fall foul of such difficulties and been forced to wave goodbye to the domestic professional game. 

According to media reports, over the past four seasons, a total of 39 clubs, at different levels of the professional game in China, have called it quits. 

Among them, one notable example includes Jiangsu FC, which announced its liquidation in 2021, just months after winning the Chinese Super League title. 

After the end of Chinese football’s big-spending era, the nation’s professional clubs have yet to establish a sustainable development model without the open-checkbook funding of sugar daddy corporate giants. 

Earlier this month, the Chinese Football Association unveiled a new policy to allow Chinese soccer clubs to incorporate limited commercial sponsorship into their team names from next season, in order to stabilize the domestic game’s finances. 

READ MORE: Sponsorship rethink boosts CSL teams

“The disbanding of Dalian Pro makes us sad, and there’s nothing more to be done to save it. Actually, the way Dalian Pro disbanded is just like many other teams. There are too many financial problems and the club’s development had become unsustainable. How to solve the problem? No one has a definite answer, but what is certain is that the Chinese leagues need sustainable development,” read the Soccer News commentary.