China has a lot of people. And a lot of money.
Germany has a lot of soccer teams. And a lot of team owners who want more money.
It's a match made in heaven.
A league in Germany's fourth tier found a novel way to add a squad for a nice, even, 20-team table — they're bringing in a team from China.
According to kicker.de, the Regionalliga Südwest (along with the football associations of Germany and China) agreed to the idea in part because each of the 19 German squads will each receive a bonus of €15,000.
Regionalliga Südwest (the regional league for Southwest Germany, for those who don’t speak German or aren’t very good at recognizing cognates) is one of five regional leagues in Germany’s fourth tier, below the single-league 3. Liga, 2. Bundesliga and Bundesliga.
While the other four leagues in the fourth tier all have 18 teams, the southwest region will now have 20.
The Regionalliga Südwest teams are understandably intrigued by the marketing opportunities of playing against a team from a country nearly 17 times larger than their own.
The team will apparently be made up of Chinese U-20 players. Because the Chinese club will not have a home stadium in Germany, the 19 clubs will all have two extra home games to generate ticket revenue.
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