On March 14, the CFA officially released a notice on matters related to player transfer registration for the 2022 season for Chinese Super League (CSL), Chinese First Division (CFA) and Chinese Second Division (CSB) clubs through its official channels, confirming that the first transfer window of the new season for the CSL and CFA leagues will be kicked off from March 15th to April 15th. This move signifies that the CFA and the CFL preparatory team are pushing forward the preparatory work according to the plan that the new season of the Chinese Super League was originally scheduled to start on April 23rd.
However, in view of the recent epidemic in some provinces and cities in the country rebounded significantly, the tournament organizers and operations team suspended the alternative venues for clubs at all levels of the field inspection work, the specific task of inspection is temporarily handed over to the local member associations to assist in the completion of the task. Can the home and away system be successfully resumed in the new season of the Chinese Super League? The final answer will depend on the development of the epidemic and the actual situation of epidemic prevention and control work.
According to the official information of the CFA on the 14th, the first player transfer window of the new season of the Chinese Super League and the Chinese First League will be opened on March 15th, with a deadline of April 15th. This schedule coincides with the organizers previously introduced to April 23 for the new season of the Chinese Super League opening node of the game plan. Up to now, the CFA, CFL preparatory group is still actively promoting the new season of the Chinese Super League and other levels of professional league preparations for the start of the game. From the feedback of professional clubs at all levels collected by the organizers at the beginning of this month, the 18 clubs of the Chinese Super League and the majority of local football associations where the Chinese Super League clubs belong to have expressed their support for the resumption of the home-and-away system.
Recently, however, there has been a more pronounced rebound of the epidemic in a number of cities in China, including the places where some professional league clubs are registered. For the sake of safeguarding the health and safety of personnel, the organizers have always put epidemic prevention at the forefront of their minds as they move forward with the opening of the tournament.
So, can the home and away system be resumed in the new season of the Chinese Super League? In fact, before this, in order to cope with the various situations that may arise, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) and the preparatory group of the Chinese Football League (CFL) have formulated four sets of competition programs for the Chinese Super League.
Based on the communications from the Feb. 23 league work session, the second of the four packages was highlighted. The specific content of the program is "home and away system combined with stage and group system". That is, with reference to the system of the last season's Central League, the 34 rounds of the season will be divided into 4 stages in accordance with the pattern of "10+8+8+8 (rounds)". In each stage, 18 teams are divided into 3 groups and play a double round-robin of home and away matches within the group. At the end of each phase, the teams in each group are rotated to maintain six teams in each group, and then play a double round-robin within the group.
It should be noted that the CFA and the CFL preparatory team have always strived to maximize the restoration of the home-and-away system in the process of formulating the plan. Only as a last resort will the continuation of the "match system" practiced in the past two seasons be considered. Those involved in the preparatory work for the Chinese Super League also said that the epidemic prevention policy is a major national policy. An important prerequisite for organizing matches is to safeguard the health and safety of personnel. While all efforts are being made to promote the resumption of the home-and-away system, it is also necessary to anticipate extreme situations and formulate detailed countermeasures.
