On March 29, the Chinese Football Association officially announced the access list of the three professional leagues, the first stage of the new season of the Chinese Super League, Wuhan will join the B group. Unlike last year's drawback of "relegation" by winning one game under the conference system, this season's Super League will have 30 rounds of matches, with the final ranking determined by the total points of the 30 rounds, thus determining the number of places from the champions to participate in the Super League's promotion to the first round of the play-offs. However, the tournament will first be played according to the tournament grouping method, in which Wuhan is placed in Group B in the first stage, and will first face strong opponents such as Beijing Guoan, Shanghai Harbor, Shanghai Shenhua, Hebei, Guangzhou City, Dalian People and promoted Changchun Yatai. Facing these opponents, what kind of result can Wuhan team finally achieve?
30 rounds of matches to eliminate "relegation" phenomenon
With defending champions Jiangsu out of the running, Cangzhou Lions, who were promoted to the Super League by replacement, will be placed in Group A (Guangzhou Division) as required. The new season of the Chinese Super League program will be opened on April 20 in Guangzhou, the opening game is likely to be last season's runner-up Guangzhou team against Cangzhou Lions. Meanwhile, the new season of the Chinese Super League will be divided into 3 stages, with the full season closing on December 1 at the earliest.
In the first phase of the A and B groups, the tournament will be held in Guangzhou and Suzhou respectively. According to the "serpentine arrangement" rules, Guangzhou, Shandong Taishan, Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic, Henan Songshan Longmen, Tianjin Jinmen Tigers, Shenzhen, Qingdao and Cangzhou Lions will be in Group A, while Beijing Guoan, Shanghai Harbor, Shanghai Shenhua, Hebei, Guangzhou City, Dalian People, Wuhan and Changchun Yatai will be in Group B. Compared to last year's drawback of playing only 20 matches under the tournament system, this season's Chinese Super League will have a more rationalized format. The first stage in accordance with the serpentine placement into A, B two groups, grouping the first stage of double round-robin tournament, a total of 14 rounds; the second stage, each group of the top four (A1 to A4, B1 to B4) with the other group of the next four (B5 to B8, A5 to A8) regrouped to keep the two groupings cross double round-robin, that is, A1 only with the B5 to B8 for the double round-robin, a total of eight rounds; the third stage In the first stage, the top four of the two groups (A1 to A4, B1 to B4) are divided into a group, and the bottom four (A5 to A8, B5 to B8) are divided into a group, and the same cross double round robin, totaling 8 rounds. This works out to exactly 30 rounds of matches, and each team plays two matches against each of the other 15 teams. This system is equivalent to ensuring that each team has played 30 games in a double round-robin of home and away matches, and the points ranking is more reasonable, eliminating the situation of "relegation" by winning one game.
Because there are no direct drop places in the Super League this season, the bottom two teams will play a two-round Super League elevation playoff against the 3rd and 4th place finishers in the current season's Super League, with the winning team qualifying for the 2022 Super League season.
Schedule of the new season's stages of the Chinese Super League
Phase 1 (Rounds 1-5): April 20-May 17 (before the Top 40)
Phase 1 (Rounds 6-14): June 21-August 5 (after the Top 40)
Phase 2 (Rounds 15-22): August 21-September 29
Phase 3 (rounds 23-30): October 24-December 1
The first phase is particularly important
Currently, Wuhan's midfield and backfield personnel are complete, the only regret is that because of the epidemic and the national team game day and other reasons, the team's forward trident Evra, Baptisteang and Rafael temporarily unable to return home. Among them, Baptisteang and Rafael are affected by the epidemic in Brazil, and other teams in the Chinese Super League, such as Beijing Guoan's Augusto and other situations are consistent. After playing for the Ivory Coast national team, Evra will depart for his home country, but whether he will be able to make it in time for the five rounds of the first phase of the group stage is still unknown after going through a quarantine period to prevent and control the epidemic. This means that Wuhan will have to play defense and rely on their local attacking players in the first phase of the tournament to compete for a desirable result.
