Soccer fans:Sina Weibo

"It is hard to say goodbye, but I'll cheer for you one last time." 

This was the line that a fan wrote on a card for a flower bouquet sent to the Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic F.C. Once Chongqing's only professional soccer club, the team disbanded on May 24 after 25 years in the sport. 

On Tuesday, the club announced that due to heavy debt, the impact of COVID-19 and the current development of soccer, it would have to withdraw from the Chinese Football Association Super League and disband.  

The club has accrued around 750 million yuan ($111 million) in debt over the years. 

The collapse of Chongqing Liangjiang, the only professional soccer team in the city of more than 30 million people, did not just happen overnight. Turmoil surrounding the internal "shareholder reform" first arose in 2021. 

Since early 2021, the Dangdai Group, which spent 540 million yuan in 2016 on taking over the club, had been discussing shareholder reform plans with local government institutions in order to keep the club going. 

Although the Sports Bureau of Chongqing approved a plan in July 2021 that specified changes to the debt-ridden club's future operation model, investments, and debt payment management, this plan was eventually aborted, which left the clubs assets frozen and players unpaid. 

On May 20, the club's coaching staff and players wrote an open letter to the public in which they committed to giving up all unpaid salary prior to April 30 and said they would continue to fight for the city as long as the club signed an agreement promising that salary after May 1 would be issued in a proportional and progressive manner over a certain period of time. 

However, this proposal did not come to fruition. In an open letter published on May 24, the club said staff should pack up their personal belongings and leave the office area before 12 noon and that the club would try to pay off members' salary to the maximum extent possible by raising funds through litigation, debt repayment, asset sales and other means. 

The news of the disbandment quickly began trending on Sina Weibo, where the club has more than 375,000 followers. In the days that followed, fans became sentimental about the club, one of China's oldest local professional soccer teams. 

"I'm not surprised by this result because the club's struggle is no longer news, but I just can't say goodbye. I still remember the time I was cheering loud for them at the Chongqing Olympic Sports Centre." Zhang Zhibing, a fan of the club for 10 years, told the Global Times. 

A mega Chinese city just can't go without a professional soccer team." 

Flower bouquet sent by fans to the Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic F.C.Photo:Sina Weibo

Founded in 1994 as the Wuhan Qianwei, the club later changed names to Chongqing Lifan and then Chongqing Dangdai Lifan and finally Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic in 2021. The team was something of a name card for the city in many people's eyes. 

"I'm a fake soccer fan, but grew up with two brothers who messed around but took care of me. It is hard to forget the many times they brought up Lifan, and wore Lifan shirts when taking me to the soccer field. Now they are all married with children, but Lifan left me the best memories about them," Li Yuer, a fan of the club, told the Global Times. 

The club's time as Chongqing Lifan was a defining period for the team as it won its first major tournament, the Chinese FA Cup championship, under this name in 2000. 

The club isn't the first to withdraw from the Chinese Football Association Super League. Two other famous clubs, Tianjin Tianhai and Jiangsu F.C., disbanded in 2020 and 2021 respectively. The latter disbanded just a little over 100 days after it won the championship for the Chinese Football Association Super League in 2020.