BEIJING, Feb. 29 (Xinhua) -- Baoding Yingli Yitong FC has threatened to deny the governing authority of the Chinese Football Association (CFA) if the latter fails to reply to series of questions from the club in one week's time.
In a strongly-worded letter sent to the CFA on Friday, Baoding FC asked if all the interactions between Chinese football's governing body and the club conformed to relevant laws and regulations.
"For example, you did not consult us before making adjustments to the amount of deposit money," the letter read.
"Can you tell us if correlation exists between the investors of your affiliated clubs?" the letter asked.
"Please give us a formal reply in one week. Otherwise, we will deny your governing authority over our club's membership of Chinese football leagues," Baoding FC added in the letter.
The third-tier professional club, based in Baoding, Hebei Province, also requested that the CFA set up a scientific management system for its leagues in one month.
Club investor Meng Yongqiang had said on Wednesday that the club would take legal action against the CFA to recover losses resulting from the latter's mismanagement.
Meng wrote on his Weibo account: "Baoding Yingli Yitong FC today initiated legal proceedings to seek compensation from the CFA, whose mismanagement has infringed on the club's interests and led to [financial] loss."
He did not elaborate on the details of the legal proceedings on Weibo, China's Twitter-like social media platform.
Meng announced that his club had decided to apply to the CFA for withdrawal from China's third-tier professional league on February 13, though it had reversed its decision one day later, saying the CFA had no right to authorize the club's pullout.
Meng then said that if the CFA revoked his club's eligibility to join this season's league, he would lodge a lawsuit against it.
He admitted on Weibo that his club owed nine million yuan (1.3 million U.S. dollars) in unpaid salaries or bonuses to the club's players and other employees.
Nine clubs have been disqualified by the CFA from taking part in this season's Chinese football leagues - which have been postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak - for failing to pay their players and staff in full for the 2019 season.
The CFA announced last October that failure to pay salaries on time would result in disqualification from the following season's professional leagues.
