The 2021 season of the Central League fixture system is revealed: multiple stages and exciting!
In this season, the Central League adopts a unique conference system, which is divided into four major stages, and the winners are decided through 34 rounds of fierce battles (10+8+8+8 rounds).
In the first stage, we witnessed three clubs under the Ministry of Member Associations (Chengdu Rongcheng, Meizhou Hakka and Wuhan Sanzhen) as the hosts, while the three seeded teams were drawn to determine their positions in Groups A, B, and C. The remaining 15 teams were placed directly into Groups A, B, and C based on the 2020 rankings. The remaining 15 teams were serpentined based on their 2020 rankings and placed directly into three groups. Each group was played in one division, with six teams in each group, in a double round-robin tournament, totaling 10 rounds and 90 matches.
Going into Stages 2-4, the teams' brackets will be rotated, with each stage divided into three groups, and the groups will then play a double round-robin. It is important to note that teams in the same group will no longer play each other in the first stage. Eight rounds of matches are played in each stage, totaling 72 games.
Regarding this season's promotion slots in the Central League, we have learned that there will be 2+0.5+0.5 slots. Specifically, the top two teams will advance directly, while the third and fourth place teams will play a play-off against the bottom two teams in the Chinese Super League to finalize the expansion of the Chinese Super League for the 2022 season.
