The 2023 Premier League season will begin in mid-April. How many teams will be playing by then? It will remain a mystery, at least until March 20, when the CFA releases its final access list.
There is no news on the preparation of several teams for the time being.
After the Spring Festival holiday, the promoted Nantong Zhiyun gathered at the Rugao Olympic Stadium base camp in Jiangsu province, which became the first Chinese Super League team to prepare for the new season.
During the match, Nantong Zhiyun player Lei Wenjie (left)
Last season, Nantong Zhiyun managed to reach the Super League as the third place in the Central League. The team is eager to fight in the Chinese Super League. They first announced the introduction of former international Wang Song, and then "corrected" the assistant coach, Portuguese Patricio, and made him the official first team manager. According to Patricio, as early as the end of last season, Nantong Zhiyun had already started the signing process for the new season. "Now the club management and the coaching team are running the thing and hopefully the new additions coming in will get everyone excited."
After Nantong Zhiyun, Shandong Taishan, Dalian People and Beijing Guoan also blew the rallying cry. However, after the end of last season's matches, Cangzhou Lions, Guangzhou City, Shenzhen and other teams have so far no news of preparation. If these teams do not push forward the share reform as soon as possible and solve the problems such as salary arrears, whether they can continue to participate in the new season of the Chinese Super League will become a question mark.
The downsizing of the Chinese Super League is controversial.
On February 7, the meeting of club leaders of the 2023 Chinese Football Professional League was held in Xianghe, Hebei Province, and various policies for the new season were announced at the meeting. However, the start time and teams for the Chinese Super League are still to be determined. All of these will be officially released after the access work is completed.
Shenzhen team
According to the CFA, if the remaining problems such as salary arrears cannot be solved, the clubs concerned will not be able to complete the registration for the new season. At the media briefing on the 9th, the CFA preparatory team revealed that there are indeed many clubs with salary arrears. Last season, in the face of the widespread problem of wage arrears in the Chinese Super League, the CFA gave three points in time for the relevant clubs to gradually resolve. As the new season approaches, the relevant person in charge of the CFA preparatory group expressed a tough attitude of never compromising. "If some clubs can't solve the problem of wage arrears, just quit!"
In addition to the 18 teams, there is another option that has been taken into consideration by the preparatory team of the CFL, and that is to reduce the size of the Chinese Super League. But this option is very controversial, at least the sponsors don't want it.
