Soccer fans in China have received warnings against holding rallies while Beijing is having its all-important annual political meetings, which coincide with news that the reigning champion of the national soccer league may close.

Jiangsu SC, the Chinese Super League champion, is facing the prospects of dissolution after its owner, appliance retailer Suning, last week announced ceasing operations of the club with immediate effect.

The club made international headlines in 2019 when it was reported to have offered Welsh forward Gareth Bale a lucrative contract to leave Spanish club Real Madrid.

Suning’s announcement shocked and devastated sports fans, who launched an online campaign to boycott the retailer and held a protest outside the soccer club’s headquarters in the eastern province of Jiangsu.

Public security officials later warned the supporters not to hold protests or cause trouble during the yearly “two sessions” of China’s national rubber-stamp legislature and top advisory body in the capital, according to one fan, Liu Yu.

Some mainland Chinese media outlets described the fate of the reigning champion as a major setback in national ambitions to become a superpower in the soccer world.

Last year, Tianjin Tianhai FC announced its disbandment after negotiations to find a new owner broke down. There were also reports that another club in the top league, Tianjin Jinmen Tigers FC, was on the verge of collapse due to financial problems.

China’s soccer dreams have been repeatedly touted by President Xi Jinping. In 2011, when Xi was vice president, he announced his three dreams for Chinese soccer, namely, to qualify for, to host and then to lift a World Cup.

Four years later, when establishing a taskforce to reform Chinese soccer, he set the target of “going on the world stage” by 2050 for the country’s teams.

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