In a much-anticipated meeting yesterday, the CFA and the CFL preparatory team gathered in Shanghai to officially unveil the restructuring plan for the new Chinese Super League season. The original 30 rounds of matches have now been condensed into 22 rounds, with the remaining 9 rounds of the first phase scheduled from July 18 to August 12, a degree of intensity comparable to rare arrangements in the history of professional leagues. The second phase of eight rounds of matches will last from December 1 to January 3, marking the first time that the Chinese Super League has implemented a year-over-year system.
According to the specific arrangement, after the 14 rounds of the first stage, the ranking of Guangzhou and Gusu will be finalized. The top four from Guangzhou and the top four from Gusu will form the championship group, while the top 5-8 from Guangzhou and the top 5-8 from Gusu will form the relegation group. These two groups will start their ranking matches from December.
The following two points need to be emphasized: firstly, the points of each team in the first 14 rounds of the tournament will be counted in the second stage, and the teams that have already played each other in the same division will no longer face each other, and the 8 rounds of the tournament will realize the round-robin match between each team and the teams that have not played each other in the first stage of the same division; secondly, the teams of the championship group shall not be ranked lower than the 8th, and the teams of the relegation group shall not be ranked higher than the 9th. Even if some of the teams in the relegation group have more points than the teams in the championship group, the result will no longer be determined by the total number of points. In addition, the last two teams in the relegation group will have to play a play-off against the 3rd and 4th place finishers in the Central League to compete for a place in the 2022 Chinese Super League.
