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The £1.2billion Flower Stadium in China was supposed to be bigger than London's Wembley Stadium and Barcelona's Camp Nou. Back in 2020, Guangzhou FC were hoping to take China's investment in football to the next level by funding one of the world's biggest arenas.

Xia Haijun, president of real estate conglomerate Evergrande, who owned China's most successful club, boldly promised at the time: "Evergrande Stadium will become a new world-class landmark comparable to the Sydney Opera House and Burj Khalifa in Dubai, and an important symbol of Chinese football to the world. We hope the stadium will host the opening ceremony of the 2023 Asian Cup."

That never happened. Scaffolding and cranes remained on a derelict site, with the foundation and lower tier only half built. The proposed 100,000-seater venue offered a glimpse into the financial struggles of Guangzhou FC, who have since been expelled from Chinese professional football.

The Flower Stadium was due to be named after the city of Guangzhou's famous flower markets. An enormous lotus flower design, which would change colour, was set to envelope the bowl of the stadium.

In designs shared in 2020, steep three-tiered stands with red seats would rise high over the pitch. At the very top, a wavy design was reminiscent of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in north London.

There were plans for 168 VIP boxes and 16 VVIP boxes. It was hoped that the stadium would host matches at the 2022 Club World Cup. Evergrande also planned to build two more 80,000-seater stadiums elsewhere in China, with locations not made public.

Building work was sensationally abandoned entirely in 2022 when Guangzhou ran into huge financial issues. In the years after releasing the stadium designs in 2020, Guangzhou's ownership plummeted into severe financial issues after crippling debt totalled a reported £220bn. That plunged the club and their stadium into a major crisis.

Evergrande, who are China's largest property developers, abandoned construction in an effort to alleviate debts. Guangzhou, who have boasted the likes of former Tottenham midfielder Paulinho and ex-Porto striker Jackson Martinez, sold many of their best players. That ended with relegation in 2022.

Back in January, Guangzhou were expelled from professional football and barred from entering competitions by the Chinese FA. It marked a sad demise for the eight-time Chinese champions and two-time AFC Champions League winners.

Plans for the Flower Stadium have since been brought back on track, but on a much smaller scale. The site was seized by the Chinese government and sold to state-owned Guangzhou City Construction Investment Group.

A much smaller 73,000-seater stadium is now in the works. New plans for the stadium are expected to cost £253million, an entire billion less than the original proposal.