In the silence of Suzhou
China's men's national soccer team is in Suzhou for a closed-door training session, while in stark contrast, China's women's soccer team, which has won the Asian championship again after 16 years. Against this backdrop, the presence of the men's soccer team seems to be weakened. At present, the most concern for the Chinese men's soccer team is undoubtedly how the working league will be conducted in the 2022 season. Although it seems to the outside world that the Chinese men's soccer team has lost the significance and value of its existence, the practitioners in the soccer industry know it very well: the most important thing for the Chinese men's soccer team at the moment is to get the new season's working league back to normal as soon as possible.
The return of the home-and-away format
Although the Chinese men's national team impact World Cup 12 has been declared a failure, the next two tournaments in March is just routine, but for the Chinese men's soccer team, the most fatal blow is not the national team impact failure, but by the impact of the epidemic, home and away matches system comprehensive suspension of two years, the Chinese Super League can only be completed in the match system method, and was forced to significantly reduce the distance. This makes the Chinese Super League a rare event in today's world soccer world, a situation that can be deeply felt from the many foreign aiders who left the Chinese Super League in interviews.
Many blame the CFA for this, but neither the CFA nor the Preparatory Group for the Chinese Professional League, which is currently in charge of the league's operation, nor the professional clubs are willing to implement this kind of match system. A more powerful question to ask rhetorically is: why is it that a concert or concert with a capacity of tens of thousands of people can go on normally, while a soccer match with an average of only 20,000 to 30,000 fans cannot go on normally? The professional league itself is a highly market-oriented event that requires basic commercial income such as ticket sales to sustain its operation. Banning fans from entering the stadium and forcing the clubs to adopt the match system is a complete "cut-off" of the clubs' most basic income.
As a matter of fact, the shareholding reform, which is now fully implemented, has also encountered resistance, which is not unrelated to the match-fixing system in the past two years. Not that there are no enterprises or companies willing to accept or intervene in the operation of the clubs. Many local enterprises or companies have made one point clear: if they are to subsidize or intervene in the operation of the clubs, at least they should be able to see the teams they are subsidizing or intervening in under their noses, and they should be able to see their own teams playing matches at their doorsteps. This is not too much to ask. If they cannot even see the shadow of the team, on what basis can they subsidize or intervene in the operation and management of the club? Is it just "taking money"? No one will be willing to be such a "wrongdoer".
Therefore, China's professional league needs to continue to survive, the full restoration of the home and away system has been imminent. To a certain extent, this has been the decisive factor in the survival of Chinese soccer. Nowadays, all countries and regions around the world, even if the epidemic is serious, the soccer league has fully implemented the home and away system, and fully open to the audience. If China's soccer league can be fully resumed, to a certain extent, it can also fully demonstrate to the world China's great results in the prevention and fight against the epidemic.
It is also for this reason that the CFA has already started to think about the full restoration of the home and away system and started to communicate with the relevant departments as early as before the end of the 2021 season in early January this year. Now, the CFA has submitted the application report, hoping to fully restore the home and away system.
Report multiple home sites
Of course, in the whole process, the CFA has also submitted a number of plans for the actual situation. For example, in order to ensure the full resumption of the home and away system, this year's Chinese Super League clubs are required to report not only the first home field, but also the second and third home fields, and these home fields are in line with the relevant requirements of the professional league and can be put into use at any time. This is mainly to cope with the epidemic that may occur at any time.
In the case of Beijing Guoan, for example, the Fengtai Sports Center would normally be chosen as the first home stadium, as the Gongti is currently undergoing reconstruction for the 2023 Asian Cup. However, when Fengtai District encountered an epidemic rebound, Fengtai Sports Center is no longer possible to become the home of Guoan, Guoan may choose Daxing or Shunyi as the second and third home. Of course, the second and third home stadium must meet the Chinese Super League norms and requirements, whether it is grass, lighting and other aspects, all need to meet the standard. If the CFA and the professional league preparatory group submitted a full restoration of home and away applications approved, before the start of the Super League, the CFA and the professional league preparatory group will send the relevant personnel to the clubs reported a comprehensive investigation of the home stadium, only to meet the standards to be passed, as an alternative. And, in the event of extreme circumstances, such as Guoan may even choose to choose the area outside of Beijing as the home field, in order to cope with the normal opening of the professional league.
This is of course only one of the scenarios. Both the CFA and the professional league preparatory team have also prepared league scenarios in the event that the home-and-away system application fails to go through. If the home-and-away system fails to open properly, then the 2022 Chinese Super League, Chinese League A and Chinese League B will still have to open in the same way as the past two seasons, with a match system method, but the exact journey won't be as intensive as the previous year's and every effort will be made to ensure that 34 rounds of league matches can be played.
Kickoff as early as April 22nd
According to the currently drafted program, the earliest start time for the 2022 Chinese Super League is April 22 and 23, which is mainly due to the Chinese men's national team will participate in the last two rounds of the World Preliminary 12 on March 24 and 29, when China's 99-age U23 national football team will also take advantage of this FIFA-designated window of competitions for the national team to arrange to go to West Asia to practice, which is also the widely reported Dubai Cup tournament The Dubai Cup. After completing their respective tournaments, the two teams will take a flight back to their home countries and then undergo the usual "14+7" isolation. This means that the Chinese men's football two national team if in March 30th departure to return home, 31st arrived in the country, through the 21 days of isolation, the earliest complete release has been April 21st. Therefore, before this, the Chinese Super League will never be able to start, and April 22, 23 is exactly a weekend, so the Chinese Super League is scheduled to fully open this weekend.
Of course, choosing to start the tournament at this point in time seems a bit "unfair" to clubs that have international players or U23 players selected, as there is no way for the team to gel before the start of the tournament. However, if the start of the league is delayed even further, it is likely that they will not be able to release their players by November 14th, the latest week before this year's World Cup in Qatar, as required by FIFA's Unanimous Requirements. While it is likely that given the current reality of the Chinese Super League clubs, it will no longer be possible to have more than 10 foreigners playing in World Cup matches as was the case for the 2018 World Cup tournament, the release of even individual foreigners will have a detrimental effect on the clubs. Therefore, as per the drafted route, the Pro League preparatory team would like to conclude all the CSL matches on November 13th.
In this situation, the clubs can only find a way to overcome the problems caused by the withdrawal of international players or U23 players in the early stage of the league. And, this is also in order to be able to more complete in the 2022 season to finish the Chinese Super League, the maximum possible "save" the foundation of Chinese soccer. For the clubs, the national team in the 24th of this month after the end of the "14 + 7" isolation, in March 10th to travel to West Asia, prepare for the last two matches in late March before the final 12 matches will not be arranged to focus on, so the clubs team can only use the two weeks for the integration of the time.
Two intervals give way to the National Football League
From the weekend of April 22nd, 23rd to the weekend of November 12th, 13th, during a total of 30 weeks, due to the Chinese Super League this year, there are 18 teams participating, so a total of 34 rounds of matches need to be completed. This means that this year's Chinese Super League will show a number of "one week, two games" situation. If cross the AFC Cup, the number of weekly double matches may increase.
Compared to the previous two years, the 2022 Premier League season will also be suspended in accordance with the national team competition window designated by FIFA, but not for as long as the previous two years. According to the 2022 calendar drawn up by FIFA, after the national team competition window, which runs from March 21 to 29, there are two more national team competition windows, from May 30 to June 14 and September 19 to 27, to follow. Although the Chinese men's national team has no major tournaments this year, but after all, need to prepare for the 2023 Asian Cup, so will still be centralized, and the Chinese Super League will also be suspended in these two national team competition window.
In addition to these two windows, the East Asian Cup, which will be played in China from July 19 to 27, and the Hangzhou Asian Games, which will be held from Sept. 7 to 25, will not suspend the Chinese Super League. Now, according to the CFA and the professional league preparatory group's opinion, during the Hangzhou Asian Games, due to the 99-age U23 national football team, may affect two to three rounds of the league, ready to use the "exemption" method to solve the problem of player recruitment. If a player is called up by the U23 national football team, his club team will no longer implement the U23 policy during this period. As for how to play in the East Asian Cup, it is still in the process of negotiation and coordination.
National Football League competition window becomes bye period
Although this year's Chinese Super League has been initially designated by the two FIFA national team competition window period suspended, "give way" national football training, but also to deal with possible unforeseen circumstances, the Chinese Football Association and the professional league preparatory group
