A 14 Million Yuan Match Bonus: The Rise and Fall of Evergrande's 17 Billion Yuan Football Era

On the morning of August 20, 2026, the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court in Guangdong delivered its first-instance verdict: Xu Jiayin was sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of multiple crimes, deprived of political rights for life, and ordered to have all personal property confiscated. The same judgment document imposed a fine of 8.82 billion yuan on Evergrande Group and 7 billion yuan on Evergrande Real Estate, totaling 15.82 billion yuan.

The clock goes back 14 years. On the evening of March 7, 2012, at Jeonju World Cup Stadium in South Korea, Guangzhou Evergrande entered the AFC Champions League for the first time and defeated K League champions Jeonbuk Hyundai 5-1.

Before the match, Xu Jiayin, who was attending the National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference sessions in Beijing, specifically sent chairman Liu Yongzhuo to South Korea to deliver four words to the team: "fight with everything and bring honor." The original AFC Champions League "6306" bonus plan awarded 6 million yuan for a win, 3 million yuan for a draw, no reward or penalty for a loss, and an additional 6 million yuan for advancing each round. Xu Jiayin temporarily added a "bring honor to the country" bonus: an extra 2 million yuan for every goal in the winning margin.

A 5-1 victory meant a four-goal margin. The 6 million yuan win bonus plus 8 million yuan in additional bonuses resulted in a single-match bonus of 14 million yuan.

On March 9, Guangzhou Evergrande announced the bonus distribution details: the coaching staff received 2.8 million yuan, players who appeared received 10.78 million yuan, and substitute players received 420,000 yuan. Head coach Lee Jang-soo alone received 1.12 million yuan, setting a record for a single-match winning bonus for a Chinese Super League coach. Among the players, Cleo and Conca each received 1.0327 million yuan, while Zheng Zhi received 1.0227 million yuan. The seven substitutes who did not play a single minute also received 60,000 yuan each.

The 14 million yuan bonus from this match was only the beginning.

In March 2010, Xu Jiayin took over Guangzhou FC. According to incomplete statistics, by 2020, his total investment in football had exceeded 17 billion yuan. About 14 billion yuan went into Guangzhou Evergrande, which signed players including Elkeson, Conca, Barrios, Goulart, Paulinho and Muriqui, while domestic signings included Zheng Zhi, Gao Lin, Zhang Linpeng and Feng Xiaoting. The club also brought in coaches such as Marcello Lippi and Luiz Felipe Scolari. In the 2018 season, the club's pre-tax salary expenses reached 1.452 billion yuan.

Another roughly 3 billion yuan was invested into the Evergrande Football School. The school has sent 1,046 player selections to various national teams at different levels. In the 2025 season, 128 graduates competed in professional leagues. Xu Bin became the school's first graduate to become a senior men's national team player, while Aifeierding, Tan Kaiyuan, Liao Jintao, Wang Bohao, Qin Ziniu and Xie Jin also appeared on national team lists at various levels.

The investment brought results. Seven consecutive Chinese Super League titles, eight league championships in total, and AFC Champions League victories in 2013 and 2015 — these remain the only two AFC Champions League trophies won by Chinese clubs to date.

Also in 2012, Xu Genbao led Shanghai Tellace in their promotion campaign in the China League One. The club's annual operating expenses were about 10 million yuan, and by the end of the first half of the season, 4.2 million yuan had already been paid in winning streak bonuses. Xu Genbao had less than 1 million yuan left on his books and told reporters: "The club has no money. I can sell my house, borrow money, or even sell equity."

After seeing news of Evergrande's 5-1 win over Jeonbuk and the 14 million yuan single-match bonus, Xu Genbao remained silent for a long time and left the frequently quoted remark: "One match's winning bonus is almost equal to half a year's budget for us."

Between 2016 and 2021, Evergrande Group, Evergrande Real Estate and Xu Jiayin were accused of carrying out sustained and large-scale financial fraud, including inflating assets and concealing huge debts, as well as involvement in multiple alleged illegal activities such as illegally absorbing public funds, fundraising fraud, fraudulent securities issuance and improper disclosure of important information. Xu Jiayin was also accused of using his position to organize financial fraud, taking company assets in the name of dividends, obtaining control of financial institutions through bribery, and illegally obtaining credit and insurance funds.

In April 2026, the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court held a public hearing for the case, and Xu Jiayin admitted guilt and expressed remorse in court.

In 2022, Evergrande's debt crisis fully erupted, and it was discovered that Xu Jiayin was facing a debt hole exceeding 1 trillion yuan. In 2023, Xu Jiayin was placed under compulsory measures. On January 6, 2025, Guangzhou FC issued its final statement, saying it could not obtain qualification to enter professional leagues due to "heavy historical debts," and the team was dissolved.

From 2011 to 2020, Xu Jiayin and Evergrande Group invested nearly 15 billion yuan into the football team, but the funds were not unconditional capital injections and were provided in the form of loans.

In the 5-1 win over Jeonbuk, the winning bonus received from the AFC was approximately 750,000 yuan in equivalent Chinese currency. The difference between 14 million yuan and 750,000 yuan was covered by Xu Jiayin's personal funds.