(File photo of Ke Jie)

The complaints of four-time Go world champion Ke Jie about delayed payment of prize money have exposed a long-standing problem originating from the league's sponsors.

“I hope that China’s Go league games can become better and better, and that there will be no more defaulted payments. Since 2014, Team Office Shangfang [sponsored by Dalian Office Shangfang Real Estate Company] has been delaying a 500,000 RMB payment to Park Jung-hwan and 300,000 RMB to me. About 100,000 RMB to Mi Yuting is also overdue. I have been in persistent contact with Dalian Shangfang. I even wrote them an extremely heartfelt letter,” Ke wrote on his Sina Weibo on Dec. 13.

Go is an ancient Chinese board game involving two contestants moving black and white stones across a square grid. The game is very popular throughout East Asia. Ke said he believed the defaults were caused by poor regulations in China's official Go league.

“It is because we trusted the sponsors and believed that they would not delay our payments. After so much silence, it now feels like our players are simply naive. Hopefully the system will be improved soon,” his post continued. He added that he will donate his 300,000 RMB to charity as soon as he receives it.

Ke’s post was liked by several other Chinese Go players, including Gu Li, who also voiced hope that Go league authorities would listen more to players’ opinions.

According to Liu Shizhen, head coach of the Shanghai Go team, sponsor-team relationships in Go games are often ambiguous, and it is common to see delayed payments in the national league.

Liu noted that the Shanghai Go team encountered a sponsor fee delay the very first time they played in the national league.

“Our two sponsoring companies agreed to give us 400,000 RMB, but only 200,000 RMB came through,” Liu said in an interview with Thepaper.cn.

In practice, the Go league is not very professional. Few sponsoring companies are actually aiming to advertise or engage in marketing, a Go insider told Thepaper.cn.

“It is more like a personal habit on many occasions. It is not about making money; once the private companies encounter problems, they simply pull out,” the insider said.