08 September 2023 , 14:07
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A huge 100,000-seater stadium now lies abandoned in China just three years after building work began on the ambitious project.
Much like the Saudi Pro League is now, the Chinese Super League took the football world by storm in the 2010s when clubs began spending heavily on new signings. Millions were forked out to try and tempt stars away from Europe, with Alex Teixeira notably joining Jiangsu Suning instead of Liverpool in 2016 and Oscar swapping Chelsea for Shanghai Port in 2017.
The big spending continued for a number of years, with Carlos Tevez reportedly earning £615,000-a-week at Shanghai Shenhua. And Guangzhou Evergrande were one of the most successful Chinese clubs during this period, winning eight league titles between 2011 and 2019 with the likes of Paulinho and Robinho on their books and Marcello Lippi, Fabio Cannavaro and Luiz Felipe Scolari all enjoying managerial stints.
The club had been bought by the Evergrande Real Estate Group in 2010 and they pumped millions into its development, including the announcement of plans to build the Guangzhou Evergrande Football Stadium.
It was set to become the biggest football ground in the world, boasting a capacity crowd of 100,000 fans and an eye-catching lotus flower design. "Evergrande Stadium will become a new world-class landmark comparable to the Sydney Opera House and Burj Khalifa in Dubai, and an important symbol of Chinese football to the world," Evergrande's chief executive Xia Haijun boasted at the time.
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Work began on the stadium in April 2020 and was expected to be completed in 2022 at an estimated cost of $1.7billion (£1.36bn). However, the Evergrande Group ran into major financial problems and are believed to have run up debts of around £220bn.
They attempted to continue work on the stadium despite their troubles, but the Chinese government are said to have seized the stadium in November 2021 with plans to sell it off.
The Guangzhou Evergrande Football Stadium now sits abandoned (Future Publishing via Getty Images)However, a sale has never materialised and the project was officially scrapped last year when Evergrande cancelled a contract to buy land rights for the stadium in a bid to raise funds so they could settle debts.
The stadium now sits abandoned, with photographs showing half-built stands and cranes surrounding it. Evergrande filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in New York last month, but still retain a majority stake in the football club.
The project was officially scrapped last year after Evergrande ran into major financial difficulties (Future Publishing via Getty Images)Now known as Guangzhou FC, they were relegated from the Super League to the second tier of Chinese football last year following the loss of several key players and currently sit 12th, just seven points off the relegation zone.