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 Westernstyle professional structure. Employin g 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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Corporate governance and its associated concerns had no bearing on Chinese industry management before its national economic reform in the early 1980s. The government's intention has been tomake all state-owned enterprisesmore effective and efficient than they previously were by gradually introducing Western enterprise methods with a capitalist market approach. The article explores the notion of corporate governance in the context of Chinese football by studying the emerging labour markets and management of professional football players to gain a comprehensive understanding of the issues concerning the governance of Chinese sports and its human resource management. It seeks to contribute to the development of stakeholder theory as an important analytical framework on Chinese management studies in the field of professional sport during its economic transition.