A SENSATIONAL lotus flower stadium that was supposed to be bigger than Wembley was left abandoned for around TWO YEARS.
China‘s most successful side Guangzhou FC were forced to abandon incredible plans to build their new 100,000-seat home in 2022 after running into huge financial issues.
Owners The Evergrande Group, who previously changed the club’s name to Guangzhou Evergrande before Chinese FA restrictions prevented it, put forward initial designs for their ground over five years ago.
While work began on construction of the lotus-shaped structure in April 2020.
In the years that followed, Guangzhou’s ownership plummeted into severe financial issues after crippling debt totalling a reported £220BILLION plunged the club and their stadium into uncertainty.
The issues forced the ownership, who are China’s largest property developers, to abandon the construction in an effort to alleviate their financial troubles.
READ MORE IN FOOTBALL
As a result, the stadium was left unfinished, half-built and abandoned for almost two years.
Photos from the time show how the lower-tier of the ground was almost complete, while materials, cranes and scaffolding sat unused during the period of uncertainty.
The project was ultimately cancelled in 2022 as the club’s owners filed for bankruptcy and sold their best players.
Those sales ultimately saw Guangzhou relegated in late 2022 – marking a huge fall from grace for China’s most successful team of all time.
Most read in Football
Expelled from Chinese football
After winning eight Chinese league titles, two AFC Champions League’s, two Chinese Cups and four Chinese Supercups in the space of eight years, Guangzhou hit rock bottom earlier this year.
The club were unable to pay off enough of their mega debt and ultimately EXPELLED from professional football in China.
The Chinese superclub were refused permission by the Chinese FA to play in professional domestic football this January.
The fall from grace comes after Guangzhou had been home to huge stars such as former Tottenham and Barcelona midfielder Paulinho and Colombia and Porto striker Jackson Martinez over the years.
While they had also been managed by iconic bosses like Fabio Cannavaro, Luiz Felipe Scolari and Marcello Lippi.
However, the club is still hoping to return at some point in the future.
A statement at the time read: “We regret that we failed to make it, hence our sincerest apologies to fans and the people from all walks of life that support the club.
“We will not change our original intention and do our best to deal with the aftermath and support the development of Chinese football and Guangdong and Guangzhou football.”
Stadium future
Despite the club now not being able to continue playing professionally, the stadium will still be built.
That’s because the ground was seized by the Chinese government and transferred to the state-owned Guangzhou City Construction Investment Group.
However, the club’s bold lotus flower vision has been abandoned – alongside the initial proposed 100,000-seat capacity.
Instead an entirely new design has been put forward that has reduced the capacity by almost a third down to 73,000.
Even though the ground will hold significantly less than the original plan, it will still be the fourth largest stadium in China.
The new plans are expected to cost an estimated total of £253million, significantly less than the £1.3BILLION that was initially earmarked for the lotus design.
Read More on The Sun
Work on construction restarted in 2024 and the stadium is set to finally be completed by the end of this year.
It’s thought that Evergrande have lost £141MILLION during the process.
