Chinese Super League is the highest tier of professional football in China. Founded in 2004, the Chinese Football Association is the governing body of the league. Originally contested by 12 teams in its inaugural year, the league has since expanded, with 16 teams competing in the 2024 season. Here’s the 2024 Chinese Super League prize money including how much money the winner will earn.
A total of 32 teams have competed in the CSL since its inception, with 8 of them winning the title: Guangzhou (eight), Shandong Taishan (three), Shenzhen, Dalian Shide, Changchun Yatai, Beijing Guoan, Shanghai Port, and Jiangsu (all one title).
The current Super League champions are Jiangsu, who won the 2024 edition. The Chinese league is steadily increasing its reach and is the most famous league from Asia.
Chinese Super League commences in February or March and ends in November or December. In each season, each club plays every other clubs twice, once at home and another away.
Teams
With 16 clubs currently in the Super League, teams play 30 games each, for a total of 240 games in the season. The two lowest-placed teams by the end of the season are relegated to the China League One.
| Beijing Guoan |
| Cangzhou Mighty Lions |
| Changchun Yatai |
| Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic |
| Dalian Pro |
| Guangzhou |
| Guangzhou City |
| Hebei |
| Henan Songshan Longmen |
| Qingdao |
| Shandong Taishan |
| Shanghai Shenhua |
| Shanghai Port |
| Shenzhen |
| Tianjin Jinmen Tiger |
| Wuhan |
The Chinese Super League is one of the richest leagues, the salaries and wages offered in the league has attracted many talented players and coaches to join the league. The league has attracted players like Oscar from Chelsea, Yannick Carrasco from Atletico Madrid, Cedric Bakambu from Villareal, Paulinho from Barcelona. Coaches like Fabio Cannavaro, Manuel Pellegrini and Rafael Benitez have managed in the Chinese super league.
Football has a strong financial backing in the country. All clubs are formed by the money pooled by different investors. President Xi has set out a 10-year plan, running from 2015 to 2025, to double the size of the Chinese sports economy to more than £600 billion, based on state and private investment in football.
Chinese Super League Prize Money 2024
They want to produce 100,000 players by ploughing money into grassroots football and creating 20,000 new ‘football schools’ and 70,000 pitches by 2024. The 2019 season saw viewership figures reach about 700 million, 51% via digital media.
The annual revenue for the Chinese Super League (CSL) in 2015 was amounted to 1.5 billion yuan (230 million US dollars), title sponsor of CSL will pay 170 million yuan (26.3 million dollars) to the league.
The CSL can collect about a total of 250 million yuan (38.7 million dollars) from its seven partner sponsors, which vary their payments from 20 to 80 million yuan (3.1 to 12.5 million dollars).
Besides, the two official providers of CSL will offer 50 million yuan (7.74 million dollars) each. 10% of the revenue will go to the Chinese Football Association and the remaining money will be distributed among the 16 clubs.
LeSports, China’s leading internet-based sports company, announced a wide-ranging strategic partnership with Ti’ao Dongli recently, acquiring online multimedia rights to the CSL in a deal worth 2.7 billion yuan (420 million dollars), headlined by exclusive global broadcast rights covering five seasons for the CSL.
LeSports will live stream CSL matches starting in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, the U.S., Canada, India and much of Southeast Asia. Revenue for the Chinese super league reaches $230m.