On the morning of February 14, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) released a notice on its official website that the new season of the Women's Super League will begin in March this year, spanning a period of nine months.
Compared to last season, the Women's Premier League has expanded from 10 to 12 this season with a corresponding increase in the number of matches. As a result of this year's Chinese women's soccer competition, more players will have the opportunity to play when international players are frequently moved around.
Screenshot of CFA official website
Women's Super League expands to 12 teams for new season
After a hiatus of nearly three months, the China Women's Premier League is about to reignite, with 12 teams competing in various regions across the country from March to December this year.
Participating teams include Wuhan Chegujiang Women's Football Team, Jiangsu Wuxi Women's Football Team, Beijing Women's Football Team, Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank Women's Football Team, Shandong Sports Lottery Women's Football Team, Changchun Volkswagen Outstanding Women's Football Team, Guangdong Women's Football Team, Sichuan Women's Football Team, Shaanxi Women's Football Team, Henan Central Plains Women's Football Team, Zhejiang Hangzhou Women's Football Team, and Yongchuan Chashan Bamboo Sea Women's Football Team.
According to the Women's Super League rules released by the CFA, the Women's Super League will adopt a home-and-away round-robin system this season, with the last place in the league being relegated directly and the penultimate place playing a single-game playoff against the runner-up of the Women's First Division, with the winner going on to play in the 2024 Women's Super League.
With the Chinese women's soccer team winning the Asian Cup last year and many players successfully studying abroad, the attention of women's soccer has increased. The expansion of the league in the new season will not only give players more opportunities to play, but also further enhance the influence of women's soccer.
Last September, Sun Wen, vice chairman of the Chinese Football Association (CFA), revealed in an interview with Football Daily that the CFA plans to realize the expansion plan of the Women's Super League in recent years, with the goal of gradually increasing the number of teams to 16 in 2025.
In addition, on February 12 this year, the women's soccer tournament at the Kunming Ridge Sports Training Base had a total of 20 teams, including 11 in the Women's Super League, 8 in the Women's First Division, and U20 in the National Youth.
China Women's Football Team Trains Overseas, Prepares for Competition
Meanwhile, the Chinese women's soccer team is currently training in Spain in preparation for a series of tournaments this year.On the evening of the 14th, the Chinese women's soccer team defeated Real Betis Women 2-1 in their first warm-up match, with Wang Shanshan and Fang Jie contributing to the team's performance.
The Chinese women's soccer team will play a warm-up match against the Swedish women's soccer team in two days, according to a previous trailer from the Swedish Football Association.
It will be a very busy and stressful season for the Chinese women's soccer team this year. In addition to the Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, which will be held from July 20 to Aug. 20, the team will also participate in the Hangzhou Asian Games, which will open in September, and the women's qualifiers for the 2024 Paris Olympics, which will be held in October.
Talking about the intensive schedule in the second half of the year, Chinese women's soccer head coach Shui Qingxia said in a recent interview with Xinhua that the challenge has a lot of difficulties. "I don't know what will happen after that, we finished the World Cup one after another. Fortunately, there is still nearly a month to adjust (to the Asian Games) and we have to schedule it. The Olympic qualifiers are more crucial and brutal."
At the same time, she hopes that the outside world has a correct positioning for the Chinese women's soccer team and mutual understanding. "I hope that my friends in the media, including fans, have a correct positioning for the Chinese women's soccer team, and I think mutual understanding is the most important thing. You can't say that because the Chinese women's soccer team won the Asian Cup, (we) stand at the top of Asia, and then we can compete with strong teams in the World Cup, or even achieve better results. Realistically it's not very likely. In terms of overall strength, the Chinese women's soccer team is not one of the strongest in the world, Rome was not created in a day, it takes time to accumulate. In this process, there are successes and failures, of course, everyone wants to be more successful, we understand each other. We see the gaps and then how to move forward, that's the key."
