Original title: This year’s Chinese Super League will be postponed to April opening
After the Spring Festival holiday, the Chinese Super League clubs resumed winter training. However, the Chinese Super League, which was planned to start in March, is basically determined to be delayed until April. In addition, according to the previous “expansion” plan of the Chinese Football Association, the league’s promotion and promotion system will also be changed this season.
At the end of last year, the Chinese Football Association initially formulated a schedule for 2021. Among them, the Chinese Super League is expected to kick off in March. However, with the changes in the epidemic prevention and control situation, coupled with the release of the AFC Champions League and World Preliminary Asian Top 40 matches, the Chinese Football Association has adjusted the schedule.
It is reported that the Chinese Football Association has reported the adjusted schedule of this season’s Super League to the General Administration of Sports. According to the new plan, the Super Cup will be held on April 1, and there are two plans for the opening time of the Super League, one is on April 3 and the other is on April 20.
Although the start time has changed from before, the competition system has not been adjusted. This year, the Super League will still adopt the game system, divided into 3 stages, each team will play 30 rounds.
Among them, the venues for the first stage of the competition are Guangzhou and Suzhou. The 8 teams in each competition area will stay in the same hotel for fully enclosed management. In addition, like last season, the Super League will continue to implement 5 substitutions this season.
The competition system has not changed, and the relegation system has changed a lot. Last season, with the use of the tournament system, the original two relegation quotas of the Chinese Super League were changed to a 1+1 relegation system, that is, the last one was directly relegated, and the second-to-last player played in the play-offs with the Chinese League runner-up. The winner is eligible to participate in the Super League this season. In the 2021 season, this rule will be changed to 0+2. Specifically, the top two players in the Chinese Super League will be promoted directly to the Chinese Super League, and the last two places in the Chinese Super League will play a play-off match with the third and fourth players in the Chinese Super League. The team will also qualify for the 2022 Super League. This means that this year’s Super League has no direct relegation places.
This upgrade plan is not surprising. On December 28, 2020, the Chinese Football Association released on its official website the “Certain Measures of the Chinese Football Association to Further Promote the Reform and Development of Football”. Article 16 of the document mentions that the Chinese Super League, Chinese League One and Chinese League Two will complete the “expansion of the army” in 2023. “By then, the number of Chinese Super League teams will be expanded to 18, the number of teams in the first class will be 20, and the number of teams in the second second will be about 30. According to the new promotion plan, the number of participating teams in the Super League in the 2022 season will be able to reach 18.
The postponement of the Chinese Super League to start in April also gave the Football Association more time to prepare. It is reported that the Football Association has applied to the relevant departments to fully open the stands to allow fans to enter the stadium to watch the game.Our reporter Li Li
Source: Beijing Daily
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