On May 31st, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) officially announced that the remaining matches in Group A of the Qatar World Qualification Asia 40 will be moved to Dubai, UAE, originally scheduled to be held in Suzhou, which will result in the Chinese team, which originally had the advantage of the home field, having to play on the road. This sudden change not only adversely affects the preparation and game strategy of the Chinese team, but also brings troubles to the schedule of the Chinese Super League and other domestic matches.
It is reported that the CFA, after this change, on the one hand, efforts to coordinate the relationship between all parties to create as favorable environment as possible for the visit of the national football team, on the other hand, also communicate closely with the tournament alliance, discussing the arrangements for the remaining matches of this season's Premier League schedule. As the national football team to Dubai after the game, the earliest to June 16 to depart for home, after returning to the country's international footballers also need to be in accordance with the provisions of the domestic epidemic prevention to accept a period of medical isolation observation, so the restart of the Chinese Super League may be delayed, the specific start time may be postponed to mid-July.
The Chinese Football Association (CFA) finally decided to move all the matches in Group A of the 40-team tournament to Dubai after communicating with the AFC after the Maldives and Syria failed to take the scheduled flights from Dubai to Shanghai due to the outbreak of epidemics in their respective teams. This decision has had an adverse effect on the Chinese team's preparation and competition.
In addition to the Chinese team, the Chinese Super League (CSL) and other domestic soccer events have also been affected by this change. The Chinese Super League (Round 6) was originally scheduled to restart on June 21, according to the previously confirmed schedule. However, with the irreversibility of the national football team's plan to travel to the UAE, the internationals will need to complete their 40-team tournament on June 15 (assuming the 40-team Group A matches are not further postponed) before they can depart for their home country on June 16 at the earliest. After returning home, they will also need to undergo various epidemic prevention checks and a long period of medical quarantine observation in accordance with the epidemic prevention regulations. Under these circumstances, it is difficult for the Chinese Super League to restart on June 21st according to the established plan.
On the evening of May 30, Liu Jun, who is in charge of the match scheduling, appeared at the site of the match between the national football team and the Guam team at the Suzhou Olympic Sports Center. It is understood that before and after the confirmation of the news of the remaining matches of the Top 40 to change places, the CFA has also consciously communicated with the operational alliance and other relevant parties on the issue of league scheduling.
Informed sources revealed that from the current communication situation, the possibility of the Chinese Super League delayed restart is higher. On the one hand, at present, one of the two major cities of the Chinese Super League tournament, Guangzhou City, there is a significant epidemic, epidemic prevention and control situation is particularly serious. As part of the Chinese Super League matches have been open to the audience, so the race organizers, the race area need to protect the lives and health of personnel as the top priority of the work, the need to carefully consider the restart of the Chinese Super League matters; on the other hand, once the international footballers need to return to their home countries to accept a long period of quarantine, then the organizers of the tournament must be from the protection of fair competition point of view, waiting for the international footballers to return home to their respective clubs after health and safety On the other hand, once the international players have returned to their respective clubs, the organizers must wait for them to return to their clubs in good health and safety before restarting the Super League.
As of May 31, communication on related matters is still ongoing. However, from the time projection, once the Super League delayed restart, then the specific start date may have to be postponed to mid-July.
On May 31, a media outlet claimed that "Qingdao is now actively preparing to take over the Chinese Super League's Guangzhou tournament at any time." However, as of that afternoon, there was no official information to confirm the authenticity of this information. It is understood that earlier this year, some cities did put forward bids to host the 2021 Chinese Super League season. In addition to the cities of Suzhou and Guangzhou, which were eventually awarded the hosting rights, cities such as Wuhan and Dalian also made bids. And as of late on the 31st, the CFA and the Operations League are still paying close attention to all kinds of information, including the epidemic in Guangzhou City, but there is no detailed plan to move the Guangzhou tournament to other places.
Another issue of concern is that once the Chinese Super League is postponed due to the national football team going abroad, the already dense league schedule will be even more compact. If the Chinese team can successfully qualify for the Top 12, then the team does not rule out participating in the home and away system of the Top 12 games, the Super League may also continue to "make way" for the national football team to prepare for the game. In this case, the league is difficult to play the remaining 25 rounds of matches in a limited time. Therefore, the CFA, the operation of the league does not rule out the start of the "contingency plan", will be this season's Premier League fixtures to reduce. The specific system may refer to last season's Chinese Super League system, that is, the 3-stage tournament reduced to 2 stages, that is, after the first stage of the game, the 16 teams according to the first stage of the group stage rankings, respectively, into the championship group and relegation group, until the final ranking of each group. And the relevant preliminaries have been previously released in the new season of the Premier League matches to be clear.
