Premier League Dynamics
The 2022 Chinese Super League season is about to kick off on June 3, however, Chongqing Two Rivers Athletic failed to wait for that moment!
Chongqing Two Rivers Athletic Football Club officially announced yesterday that it was withdrawing from the Chinese Super League and ceasing operations, announcing the team's closure. This marks the third consecutive year that a Chinese Super League club has withdrawn from China's professional soccer league, following the 2020 season of Tianjin Tianhai and the 2021 season of Jiangsu.
Since 1997 on behalf of Chongqing to play in China's top professional soccer league, Chongqing team from the avant-garde Huandao to Chongqing Lifan, and then to the Chongqing Two Rivers Athletic, after 25 years of brilliant years, set up the western professional soccer banner, but also become the city of Chongqing civilization sports business card.
Since the beginning of last year, the Chongqing club and the local authorities have discussed the shareholding reform several times in a bid to preserve the flame of Chongqing professional soccer. However, the share reform has not been able to move forward as planned, and the club has accumulated debts and is no longer able to maintain its operations. Previously, in the open letter released by the Chongqing team, the players said they were willing to automatically give up the club's salary arrears before April 30, 2021, in the hope of completing the shareholding reform according to the plan to rescue the team, but ultimately failed to stop the team towards the end of the fate.
With the withdrawal of Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic, the new season of the Chinese Super League will inevitably face schedule adjustments. Currently, the CFA and the CFL preparatory team are urgently discussing a plan to deal with the situation. According to the original plan, there will be no replacement for the Central League 1 team, and 17 teams will compete in the new Chinese Super League season. Chongqing will be sentenced to 0-3 losses in all the matches they are involved in, and the team has also locked up a relegation spot ahead of schedule.
However, from the reporter's latest understanding of the situation, there is still the possibility of starting the second plan. For the maintenance of the league fair competition and other factors, the CFA and CFL preparatory group still hope to maintain the number of 18 teams, do not rule out the possibility of an emergency replacement of a team among the new season of the Chinese Super League, a team among the new season of the possibility of the Chinese A League. In fact, two years ago, the Cangzhou Lions also had to replace the participation in the Premier League.
If this proposal is finally confirmed, according to the professional league club replacement rules, the Dalian People's team, which was originally included in the new season of the Central League, and the Shanghai Jiading Huilong team, which was included in the new season of the Central B League, are expected to be replaced by the relevant level of the league's "first team" status to the new season of the Chinese Super League and the Central League, respectively.
Once the Dalian People's team recruits to participate in the Chinese Super League, the team may have to stay in the Dalian region, while the Chongqing Two Rivers Athletic team has previously been placed in the Haikou region, and in the opening match against the defending champion Shandong Taishan team, the initial journey plan or face adjustments.
According to the relevant person in charge of the Dalian People's Team, the club is currently waiting for the resolution of the Chinese Football Association. It is reported that there is still disagreement within the CFA on the two proposals, whether the Dalian People's team can return to the Chinese Super League by replacement will soon be known.
