With the conclusion of the first phase of the Chinese Super League last night, China's soccer is about to embark on a new journey to the Round of 12, and the Chinese Super League will restart the second phase of the fierce battle on December 3rd.
The results of the Guangzhou and Suzhou tournaments made the CFA decide to schedule all 8 rounds of the second phase of the "Championship Group" in Guangzhou.
Guangzhou rises to the challenge as fans return
As a result of the New Crown epidemic, the Chinese Super League has shifted from a home-and-away system to a tournament system. Last year, the Super League had been held in two venues, Suzhou and Dalian.
In January this year, the preparatory team of the CFA and CFF made a site visit to Guangzhou and verbally confirmed Guangzhou as the host of this season's Chinese Super League. Xu Ruisheng, vice-governor of Guangdong Province, said in his instructions, "Hosting the Chinese Super League is the result of Guangzhou's soccer reform taking the lead in the country, and it is recommended that we take advantage of this opportunity to promote the overall development of Guangzhou's socio-economy in the context of the normalization of epidemic prevention and control."
On March 1, the CFA announced that Guangzhou would be the other region to host this season's Chinese Super League in addition to Suzhou. To this end, Guangzhou has formed an organizing committee of more than 300 people, with the participation of nearly 20 municipal related units. Under the leadership of the organizing committee, Guangzhou has carried out professional and meticulous preparations for the venue renovation, match arrangements, reception, epidemic prevention, security, volunteer services and other aspects of the game, and has undertaken the task of the opening ceremony of the Chinese Super League.
It is worth mentioning that the organizing committee of the Guangzhou tournament, with the consent of the Municipal Health Commission, decided to sell tickets to the public for each match at 75% of the actual capacity on the premise of epidemic prevention and control.The opening ceremony of the Chinese Super League at the Galaxy Stadium in the evening of April 20 attracted 30,000 fans into the stadium to watch the game.For the remaining nine rounds of the first phase of the season, which started in the middle of July, under the premise of taking good precautions against epidemics, each match was still arranged for spectators to enter the stadium according to the plan. arranged for spectators to enter the stadium.
From April 20 to August 11, eight Chinese Super League teams completed two time periods of 14 rounds and 56 matches in Guangzhou, the whole process was smooth, orderly and safe.
Epidemic protection, venue escort
Drawing on the successful experience of last season's Chinese Super League, the Guangzhou tournament also adopted the "Blue Zone" and "Green Zone" management mode, with all relevant participants, media personnel and organizing committee staff included in the "Blue Zone" and "Green Zone" management. All relevant participants, media personnel and staff of the organizing committee are included in the "Blue Zone" of the fully closed management. The Guangzhou Organizing Committee, in accordance with the CFA Professional League Epidemic Prevention and Control Guidelines, strictly enforces the epidemic prevention requirements for various venues such as the stadium, training grounds, and the Blue Zone Hotel, and the spectators are required to enter the stadium by scanning the code and wearing masks. At the same time, the organizing committee has adopted a "meltdown mechanism" to take necessary measures, including reducing the number of people entering the stadium, leaving the stadium empty, and suspending the tournament if there is an outbreak of epidemic during the tournament.
In addition to epidemic prevention, the Guangzhou Region has also done a lot of work in the renovation and coordination of competition and training venues. Last year, the Chinese Super League only needed to provide three venues for each region, but this year the requirement has increased to four venues. In fact, there are very few cities in the country that can meet the conditions of the Chinese Super League venues, even the four venues in Suzhou are not all within the city, but Guangzhou can provide more than 10 venues for the CFA and the CFL preparatory team to select, and finally determined the four official venues of Galaxy, Yuexiu Mountain, University City and Huadu.
Of the four playing fields, the Huadu Stadium was the one that put the most effort into renovation, including turf and lighting equipment. However, because of the strong thunderstorms in early May, three matches at Huadu Stadium were adjusted. For the nine rounds of matches starting from July, the drainage system of the Huadu Stadium, which has undergone major renovation, has been quite perfect, and even though there were strong thunderstorms during that period of matches, the Huadu Stadium successfully ensured the completion of the tournament.
Because after the resumption of the Chinese Super League in July, nine rounds of matches were played at a super-dense pace of one match in three days, and four matches in a round were concentrated in one day, the teams of matches, medical care, media, caddies, and logistics in the Guangzhou area were increased from two sets of personnel to four sets of personnel, and at the same time, many additional measures were taken to protect against the summer heat. Although the utilization load of the four competition venues was high, it was proved that no matter facing high temperature and scorching heat or typhoon and thunderstorms, the matches in Guangzhou Municipal District were conducted on schedule and there was no suspension of the matches due to the weather.
From the data, the first phase of the Guangzhou region 56 games scored a total of 162 goals, an average of 2.89 goals per game, this data also explains to a certain extent that the field of play conditions have been better guaranteed. Guangzhou team, Shenzhen team, Guangzhou City played six "Guangzhou-Shenzhen Derby", coupled with the strong play of Shandong Taishan, the first phase of the Guangzhou region of the Chinese Super League games can be described as exciting.
It is because of the high quality of the field conditions in Guangzhou, coupled with the fact that the current top of the Chinese Super League table is the Shandong Taishan team in Guangzhou, the CFA has decided to place the second phase of the end of the year, the "Championship Group" matches in Guangzhou.
Promoting Guangzhou as a World Sports City
Guangzhou was one of the host cities of the 2021 Club World Cup, but the Club World Cup was postponed due to the impact of the epidemic, so Guangzhou's hosting of this season's Chinese Super League will not only fill the gap of the Club World Cup, but also enhance the influence and competitiveness of Guangzhou's construction of the world's leading sports city.
This season, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Guangzhou City all played well in the first phase of the Super League, and are now among the second, third and fourth place finishers in the second phase of the "Champions League". With the "Champion Group" tournament settled in Guangzhou, Guangzhou will certainly trigger a new round of soccer fever. The second phase of the Chinese Super League will be held from December 3 this year to January 3 next year. Whether the Guangzhou team can keep the Vulcan Cup in Guangzhou will be the biggest attraction in the Chinese sports world at the beginning of next year.
At the same time, this year is the year of the Olympic Games, the year of the National Games and the year of the Municipal Games, Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Sports also hope that through the hosting of the Chinese Super League tournament as an opportunity to further increase the benefits of sports for the convenience of the people, improve the city's construction of public sports facilities, improve the system of mass sports organizations, enrich the mass of sports events, the implementation of the national strategy of national health and fitness, and the activation of the city's sports industry.
