On the evening of the 13th, the CFA announced the list of the first batch of clubs that have completed the debt clearance of Chengdu Rongcheng, Guangzhou City and Shenzhen, which means that three clubs have not yet gained the qualification for admission to the Chinese Super League.
According to Punch, if all goes well, the final entry list for the third tier will be officially announced at the end of the month.
For now, the CFA and CFL are still preparing for the league according to the plan to start the opening ceremony of the new Chinese Super League season in mid-April.
There are now 15 Premier League clubs through access.
Shenzhen team disputes huge number
According to the access timetable released by the CFA, March 5 was the deadline for teams to submit their access materials. After a week of review, the CFA announced on March 13 the list of the first batch of clubs that had completed debt settlement.
It is understood that Chengdu Rongcheng is involved in a foreign aid contract dispute. At present, FIFA has also made the relevant judgment - according to the relevant provisions, Rongcheng must resolve the foreign aid contract dispute, otherwise no access.
Fortunately for Hibiscus clubs, who are in a relatively stable environment for overall development, this won't be a barrier to entry, but Hibiscus will need to step up to the plate before the entry deadline.
Shenzhen and Guangzhou City have big problems - historical salary arrears and foreign aid contract disputes have not been resolved, of which Guangzhou City's access problem is relatively easy to solve. Previously, the club's relevant sources had revealed in an interview that the access issue only required about 20 million yuan.
But Shenzhen's problem is more complicated, the club has a lot of contractual disputes related to foreign aid need to be dealt with, because the amount of money involved is huge, whether it can be resolved in the short term needs a big question mark.
Wei Shihao has left the Guangzhou team to join Wuhan Sanzhen.
Can the eight champions complete access?
In the Central League, as many as seven teams still have problems, including Guangzhou, the eight-time champions who have just been relegated.
Previously, according to the league's supplementary rules, the Guangzhou team is in the supplementary entry into the Chinese Super League "pole position", that is to say, as long as the access requirements, a Chinese Super League team can not get access to the qualification, the Guangzhou team in the CFA at the same time to start the supplementary rules of the case, there is a great hope to get the qualification of the Chinese Super League in the 2023 season.
But now, the Guangzhou team must first ensure that the debt clearance is completed first, otherwise the Guangzhou team will not be qualified to participate in the professional league.
From the access announced so far, most of the Premier League teams have already passed, and the league will be able to maintain at least a 16-team size.
In contrast, seven clubs in the current Central League have yet to complete their access. Once the issue cannot be resolved within the allotted time, the size of the Central League will end up being quite questionable.
Hangzhou to host Super Bowl
On the evening of the 13th, the CFA also announced that the 2023 Super Cup will be held on April 8 at the Huanglong Sports Center in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, to play against last season's Super League champions Wuhan Sanzhen and AFC Cup champions Shandong Taishan.
The Super Bowl has been suspended for three years due to the epidemic. This year, the Chinese Super League fully resumed home and away matches, and the Super Cup also resumed. The reason the game was held at Hangzhou Huanglong Sports Center also served as a test match for the Asian Games.
In addition to Hangzhou, Wenzhou will also host two Asian Games soccer test matches on April 3 and April 7, when four Chinese Super League (CSL) teams - Shanghai Shenhua, Changchun Yatai, Beijing Guoan and Nantong Zhiyun - travel to the Wenzhou Olympic Sports Center.
In mid-April, the Super League force kicks off.
In accordance with international soccer practice, the Super Cup - Super Cup will be arranged on April 8, a week before the official start of the league, which to a certain extent conveys a signal - the new season of the Chinese Super League will officially start a week later.
Previously, the CFA and CFL had also preliminarily indicated in their communication with the clubs that they would like the Chinese Super League to take place in mid-April. For the time being, the message is consistent between the two parties.
Of course, access is the most important thing if the Super League is to start on time.
Currently, the CFA is temporarily ineligible to enter the three clubs under the rules. However, qualification for the Chinese Super League is valued by the city in which any club is located - to ultimately determine that a club has lost its qualification for the Chinese Super League, I'm afraid that it's not a decision that can be made by the CFA and the CFL, but has to be approved by the relevant management authorities.
