Beijing Youth Daily   Mar. 2, 2010 

Journalist: Xu Zhao   From Guangzhou

Like a warm current in the severe winter, Guangzhou Football Club that was degraded not long before was taken over yesterday by Evergrande Real Estate Group, a listed company. Xu Jiayin, chairman of the board of directors, said that the board of directors had decided to increase the registered capital of the club from 20 million yuan to 100 million yuan.

"Evergrande Group owns 100% shares of the new club, thus clearing away the most serious obstacle in the development road of Guangzhou Football Team." Mr. Liu Jiangnan, the chief of Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Sports said, “In the past, many problems of Guangzhou Football could not be easily solved due to the restriction of the system. But from the new competition season, Guangzhou Evergrande Football Club will undertake the heavy responsibility for revitalizing Guangzhou Football."

Because of the involvement in the football fraud case of Chinese series A league in the 2006 competition season, according to the decision of the Disciplinary Committee of Chinese Football Association, the former Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Football Club was degraded from Chinese premier league to Chinese series A league in the new competition season. But Xu Jiayin clearly said that the goal of Guangzhou Evergrande Club in the new competition season was set to return to the premier league. As a private enterprise, Evergrande club expresses that in addition to the goal to perform well in the games of Chinese series A league in this year, there is also a long-term plan to gradually complete the echelon construction of the club.

Enterprises engaged in football usually suffer from losses without making profits.” As to this saying, Xu Jiayin expresses that the involvement of Evergrande in football is above all because of social responsibility. Evergrande originated from Guangzhou and developed in Guangzhou with the powerful support of Guangzhou people from a small enterprise to a large one and from a weak one to a powerful one. Without the support from the society, there will be no Evergrande. When Guangzhou Football Team met with difficulty, Evergrande should undertake the responsibility and obligation. Secondly, we have confidence in the development of Guangzhou football and Chinese football. In my opinion, we develop the sports also for the construction of enterprise culture. Xu Jiayin also especially mentioned that "the consistent working style of Evergrande is to do the best."

According to the introduction of Xu Jiayin, the group just invested 20 million yuan in the account of the club yesterday morning for paying the debts up to 15 million yuan of the club in the last competition season, and the board of directors of the group also decided to increase the registered capital of the club from 20 million yuan to 100 million yuan. In the news briefing yesterday, most of the players of Guangzhou Football Team looked happy. Hu Zhaojun, the player of the former National Olympic Team who transferred from Dalian team to Guangzhou team happily told the journalists that "the money has been paid before the meeting".

"Although Evergrande becomes the shareholder with full power of the club, Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Sport will continue to manage the competition and the development of the team in the new competition season, as this is the first time that the group gets involved in football." Liu Jiangnan says that "the main purpose of the arrangement is to guarantee the smooth transition of the team in the new competition season with the experience of the sports bureau"

Mr. Zeng Qinghong, the general manager of Guangzhou Automobile Group and the title sponsor of the team, said that the group did not expect repayment of economic benefits from the title sponsorship, “we do this mainly for performing the social responsibility of the enterprise and supporting the development of Guangzhou football”. He also meaningfully expressed that "actually maybe the club does not need our sponsorship. We do this only for expressing our intention to support Guangzhou football”. This also reflects the great wealth of Evergrande Real Estate from a profile.

"As the new competition season will begin very soon, the sports bureau has communicated with Wei Di, the director of Chinese Football Management Center, for many times on the matters related to Evergrande’s becoming the owner of Guangzhou Football Team. Director Wei said that the center would verify the qualification of the club as soon as possible so that the club could complete the registration for the new competition season." Liu Jiangnan said that "Guangzhou Football Team will certainly pull itself together as soon as possible."