(Yicai Global) March 5 -- With its owner under police investigation and in a last-ditch bid to stay in the game, Chinese Super League club Tianjin Tianhai is giving itself away for free despite being valued at as much as CNY770 million (USD111 million).

The Tianjin-based club is offering all of its equity free of charge to an interested party until March 14, it said on its Weibo account today. Potential new proprietors must still verify if the club has any unpaid debts or unsolved disputes, it added.

Employees were paid partial salaries for January on March 2, but the club's players still have not been paid, the statement said.

The club, previously called Tianjin Songjiang, was taken over by the Quanjian Group, a Chinese herbal medical company, in 2015 and performed well, qualifying for the Asian Champions League for the first time in 2018. But in the December of that year Quanjian was accused of false marketing and running illegal pyramid schemes and Chief Executive Shu Yuhui was arrested.

With the group incapacitated, it asked the Tianjin Football Association to take over operations and the club's name was changed from Tianjin Quanjian to Tianjin Tianhai in January last year.

Quanjian has been on the lookout for a buyer or joint operator for the club for some time now, Soccer News reported.

Editor: Kim Taylor