Abstract
Over the course of the last 20 years, sports governance has been given greater consideration due primarily to the global trend of the increasing levels of sports commercialization and professionalization. The stakeholder approach has become a trend for improving not only corporate governance standards in many industries but also in sports worldwide. This article traces the development process of football in China, especially its efforts to reform the game to a Western-style professional structure. Employing the framework of stakeholder theory, particularly from the clubs’ perspective, illustrate the transitional process of football professionalization in China. The data collected from interviews with other sources available in both Chinese and English, were qualitatively analysed and the findings provide evidence of stakeholder relationships between the Chinese Football Association and clubs, between clubs and players and between clubs and fans, which identify modern conflicts, occurring within the current Chinese football industry during this development phase.
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