China removes license from Evergrande from the land of its mega-stadium, according to media

The authorities of the Chinese city of Canton (southeast) withdrew the indebted Chinese real estate giant Evergrande the license of the land where it is building a huge stadium for its soccer team, according to information published in the local press of the Asian country.

The Evergrande Stadium It was going to be the largest in the world built specifically for football, with a capacity of 100,000 spectators, even surpassing the Camp Nou in Barcelona, ​​and its total cost was estimated at about 12,000 million yuan (US $ 1,878 million, 1,675 million euros ).

Construction began in April 2020 and was scheduled to be completed before the end of 2022, but reports emerged in the Chinese press last August that Evergrande had temporarily suspended work due to financial problems.

The Cantonese Government is now seeking to auction the land again or wait for another company to buy the football team, in serious financial trouble, and also acquire the rights to the aforementioned plot.

According to the Sina news portal, the Guangzhou FC – formerly called Guangzhou Evergrande – has not paid its players since September 3, and the players are training on their own after the departure of the former coach, Italian Fabio Cannavaro.

If no company acquires the land, its rights will go to the Canton Urban Construction and Investment Group, a state-owned company controlled by city authorities and dedicated to local infrastructure, economic news portal Cailian said last night.

It should be remembered that Chinese laws contemplate that the ownership of all the land is state-owned and, therefore, what is sold is the right to use it for an extendable period, the maximums of which generally oscillate between 40 years of commercial land and the 70s for residentials.

The Cantonese authorities estimate that an investment of between 8,000 and 9,000 million yuan (between US $ 1,252 million and US $ 1,409 million, between 1,117 and 1,256 million euros) is still needed to finish the stadium, while Evergrande offers a significant figure lower, about 6,000 million yuan (US $ 939 million, 837 million euros).

After an international competition, the winning project was that of the American architect Hasan A. Syed, who proposed to shape the stadium into a lotus flower.

Thanks to the financial support of Evergrande, between 2011 and 2017 Guangzhou won all editions of the Chinese Super League, two Cups and two Asian Champions Leagues, and after that period they won a league again and were runners-up twice.

However, in recent weeks the team has seen the money tap closed in the face of Evergrande’s problems, which accumulates a liability of more than US $ 300,000 million.