According to the 2024 season calendar initially formulated by the competition department of the Football Association, the 2024 Chinese Super League season is tentatively scheduled to be in full swing on March 1 and end in November, with the entire season divided into six phases, reported Sports Weekly reporter Ma Dexing.
The annual inaugural event, the Super Cup, will be held on February 24 next year.The 2024 Super League is initially scheduled for the weekend of March 1-3, followed by the second round of matches on the weekend of March 8-10. After the two rounds of matches, the national team will refocus and begin preparations for the first window of national team matches designated by FIFA from March 18-26, with a focus on the two World Qualifier 36 matches against Singapore.
After the home match against Singapore on March 26, the Super League will restart its third round on March 29-31, after which there will be no more suspensions but until the completion of the 14th round on May 24-26 this weekend. That means 12 rounds of the league will be scheduled over an eight-week period, with four weeks of double-headers scheduled during that time. Of course, no league matches will be scheduled for the AFC's two planned AFC Champions League semifinal days on April 17th and April 24th.
Next year, from April 15 to May 3, Qatar will hold the sixth U23 Asian Cup finals and the final of the men's Asian qualifying tournament for the 2024 Paris Olympics. The competition authorities did not consider the "give way" of the league. In addition, the league is scheduled to have seven rounds before and after the tournament, which may cause opposition from clubs and create problems for the Olympic team in selecting players.
After the league tournament ends on May 26, the national team will begin preparing for the June 3-11 window of national team matches on May 27th. During this period, the focus will be on two key World Qualifying 36 matches at home against Thailand on June 6th and South Korea on June 11th. The national team has 10 days to prepare for the do-or-die match against Thailand.
The away weekend against South Korea is June 14-16, when the Super League will play its 15th round of matches until July 13, when the 19th round of matches will be completed. A short break will then be scheduled for the Super League, with the national team scheduling a flight training session from July 18th to 24th. The Super League then resumed its 20th round of matches on July 26 and concluded its 24th round of matches on August 25 at a weekly pace. From Aug. 26, the men's national team will focus on preparing for another window of national team matches from Sept. 2 to 10, the 18-team group stage. Of course, it is not yet clear whether China will make it to the Top 18, but the Competition Department has already made arrangements.
After the September window for national team matches, the Premier League will play three rounds of matches until September 29, when the 27th round of matches will be completed. The league will then be suspended again due to the Oct. 7-15 window for the Top 18 group stage. By Oct. 18-20, Oct. 27 and Nov. 2, the Premier League will schedule the 28th, 29th and 30th rounds of matches before ending all Premier League matches. Starting Nov. 3, the national team will refocus its efforts to prepare for the Nov. 11-19 fifth and sixth rounds of the group stage.
After the final 18 matches, as in this year's schedule, the final FA Cup final between the winners and runners-up will take place on November 23rd. After that, all clubs required to play in the Asian Elite League will continue to prepare for the fifth and sixth rounds of the Elite League.
Looking at the drafting schedule as a whole, the league schedule is also divided into six phases due to the national team's need to compete in the World Qualifiers. In general, the schedule in the first half of the year was more intensive than that in the second half, but the frequency of weekly doubles was only scheduled from April to May in the first half of the year, only three times in total. Thus, the entire tournament schedule is relatively reasonable. After all, the start of the new season next year will begin on March 1, unlike this year's start on April 15, and the overall schedule is one and a half months shorter.
According to the drafting plan, the Super League will start a week after the opening of the Super League. Due to the suspension of the Chinese Super League, which will not be suspended, the final round of the Chinese Super League will end on November 3, the second day of the Chinese Super League. Like the Chinese Super League, the Central League A will remain at 16 teams. The China B League will open at the end of March and run until the end of October. As for the FA Cup, it is planned to start in mid-March next year, with a total of seven rounds of matches scheduled, all single-elimination matches interspersed during the league.
