Soccer club Guangzhou Evergrande published a statement from the club owner Evergrande Real Estate Group on its official website on Thursday that offers rules for the club players who are summoned to represent the Chinese national soccer team.
The club owner said in the statement that it will form a monitoring group to supervise players who are called for international duties for the Chinese national soccer team. Anyone who is involved with faking injury or not doing their best will be fined.
"Anyone who is summoned to represent the Chinese national soccer team will receive a bonus of 100,000 yuan ($16,290) from the company, but if anyone who fails to get in the roster again owing to his own laziness in the previous match will get a penalty of 200,000 yuan," the statement said.
"We will assess every player from our club after their international duty. The top three players who behave well will be awarded, and the worst one will be punished with a 100,000 yuan penalty and a ban of one club match.
"The club will receive a bonus of 10 million yuan for each under-23 homegrown player who is called for the Chinese national team."
Marcello Lippi, former 2006 World Cup winner coach of Italy and incumbent Guangzhou Evergrande head coach, said he approves of this statement.
However, some fans thought the new rules are absurd.
"After the recent performances of China, it is ridiculous that a team would announce bonuses like that, truly bad timing," one fan wrote on his Sina Weibo on Thursday.
Xu Jiayin, chair of the Evergrande Real Estate Group, said the recent 5-1 defeat to Thailand is "unacceptable, and a shame for every Chinese soccer fan."
"I hope this statement can help build a better attitude toward the national soccer team. The national team shows the progress in soccer of the whole country, however, the club doesn't. Guangzhou Evergrande has a large number of national squad players, so we should do something more to make a better national soccer team," he said at the news conference conveying the statement on Thursday.
Guangzhou Evergrande now rank No.1 with 44 points in the 2013 Chinese Super League, 13 points ahead of second-placed Shandong Luneng.
Global Times