Evergrande's football stadium Photo: CFP

Debt-ridden Chinese real estate developer Evergrande's land for building football stadium in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province has been reclaimed by local government for auction, according to the sports section of the People's Daily citing domestic media on Wednesday. 

The report also mentioned that the land will be transferred to Guangzhou City Construction Investment Group (GZCI) in the auction at its reserve price if no company submits a bid. According to Chinese online enterprises information provider Qichacha, GZCI is the third largest shareholder of Evergrande holding a 4.8072 percent stake in the firm.

Evergrande's football stadium used to be envisioned to surpass the scale of Camp Nou Stadium of FC Barcelona, and become one of the largest football stadiums in the world with multiple top construction benchmarks, media reported. 

Due to Evergrande's debt crisis, the operation of its profession football team Guangzhou Evergrande FC has also been impacted. In September 2021, the football club confirmed that the contract of the club's coach, Italian football star Fabio Cannavaro had been terminated.

Global Times