The latest news shows that the CFA and the preparatory group of the working league have decided, after in-depth discussions, that the remaining nine rounds of the first phase of the 2021 season of the Chinese Super League (rounds 6 to 14) will be played from July 18 to August 12. Due to factors such as the impact of the epidemic and the national team's preparation for the Top 12, the 15th to 22nd rounds of the second stage will also be played from early December to early January of the following year. In order to guarantee more quality tournament opportunities for clubs at all levels of the league, the CFA has decided to retain the AFC Cup for this season and schedule most of the sequential tournaments in September, October and November, while confirming that a place in the main round of the new season's AFC Champions League will be reserved for the AFC Cup-winning team. Currently, the CFA, the Working League Preparatory Group and Ford Bowl are stepping up efforts to develop the specific system and schedule of the AFC Cup, and will discuss the relevant matters with the clubs at the Working League's working meeting in early July.
Last week, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) and the Preparatory Group of the Working Alliance held in-depth discussions on the arrangements for the remaining matches of this season's Chinese Super League (CSL). In view of FIFA's preference to keep the home-and-away format of the 12-team tournament unchanged, as well as the restricted conditions for entry and exit of participants in the context of the epidemic, the parties decided to schedule the remaining nine rounds of matches in the first phase of the Chinese Super League (including two byes in the fifth round) from mid-July to mid-August to coincide with the national team's pre-12-team training that will begin on or around Aug. 17th.
The schedule shows that the first six rounds of the 12-team tournament will be played during the three international matchday cycles of September, October and November. As a result, the CFA and the league's preparatory team initially determined that no Chinese Super League matches would be scheduled during these three months. As the sixth round of the 12 round of matches of the Chinese team at home against the second-ranked team in the same group until November 16, so taking into account a variety of factors, the remaining eight rounds of the Chinese Super League matches will be the earliest until the first half of December to be carried out.
The proposal for the Chinese Super League to make way for the national team's preparation and competition for the Top 12 tournament has aroused strong reactions in all walks of life. Some people even questioned that such an arrangement would do great damage to the Chinese Super League, suggesting that the Chinese Super League should be played normally in the absence of national players from September to November to ensure that a full 30 rounds of matches are played throughout the season.
However, it is understood that the CFA and the work of the Union preparatory group in the development of various types of Chinese Super League in the process of operational planning, but also heard from the club side of the different voices, on the "national footballer whether to miss part of the stage of the league", different clubs focus on the interests of different, in this case, the parties can only seek common ground while reserving differences.
Then from September to November, the Chinese Super League clubs at all levels "only practice not game"? The answer is no. According to the Beiqing-Beijing headline reporter reported on the 28th, was once rumored to be withdrawn this season's FA Cup will be retained. Among them, the key stage of the tournament with the participation of the Chinese Super League teams will be carried out in September, October, November, no surprise.
Last year, affected by the epidemic, the 2020 season of the Chinese Super League did not start until July 25th. The FA Cup was also at risk of being temporarily suspended, but after active coordination, all parties overcame all kinds of difficulties and ensured that last season's FA Cup was carried out smoothly through the emergency methods of reducing the scale of participation and compression of the schedule, until Taishan finally won the championship.
Last season, subject to force majeure factors, only the Chinese Super League and Chinese A (top 8) teams participated in the FA Cup in each order of the main round. According to this year's competition program planned by the CFA and Ford Bao, the domestic amateur teams with the best performance in the previous season, such as China B, China A, China Super League and a team, will be qualified to participate in this season's FFA Cup. Among them, the first round of the competition, originally planned for June, was participated by the Central A team, which produced 9 advancing teams through a single-round knockout tournament; the 24 teams of Central B played the 2nd and 3rd rounds of the knockout system, which produced 6 advancing teams, and together with that amateur team, a total of 16 teams were among the top 32. In the 4th round, that is, the 1/16th final, they will play against each of the 16 Chinese Super League teams, and then the knockout rounds will be played one by one until the champion is crowned. The quarter-finals and semi-finals will be played in a double round-robin system, while the other rounds, including the final, will be played in a single-game tie-breaker system.
However, due to the national football team to the United Arab Emirates to participate in the 40 strong match after the need to accept the necessary isolation observation in the country and other factors, originally planned to restart the Super League on June 21 had to be postponed for nearly 1 month to start, the AFC Cup competition schedule has also been affected by a small impact. Considering that the remaining 9 rounds of the first phase of the Super League will be played at a high density of 1 round every 2 days, the Super League teams will not be able to participate in the AFC Cup before the start of the 12-team tournament. The first round of the tournament will not open until around the end of July at the earliest. For the Chinese Super League teams, the best time to participate in the AFC Cup is undoubtedly from September to November.
Speaking of which, we have to mention the CFA's original intention of desperately trying to retain the FA Cup. Affected by the national football team to participate in the 12 strong tournament, the absence of national football players, the Chinese Super League, if played in September to November, then it is bound to form the league competition unfairly, which is a considerable part of the pursuit of the league competition of clubs can not afford. Then in such a long league break, the Super League teams just rely on hard training, obviously can not optimize the quality of preparation. In this case, focusing on the existing strength to participate in the AFC Cup is undoubtedly conducive to the team to maintain the status, and at the same time conducive to the clubs to explore the potential of young people, newcomers. From the past season's F.A.C.A. Cup process, unless the direction of the Super League teams competing for the Cup Championship is clear, the vast majority of them will organize a considerable proportion of replacements or reserves to cope with the F.A.C.A. Cup before the final 8 or even the final 4 matches. Therefore, once the F.A.C.A. Cup matches can be played in between, it will be a valuable exercise for the clubs in the Chinese Super League.
It has been reported that in order to encourage clubs at all levels to actively participate in the AFC Cup, the CFA will explicitly leave one of the AFC Champions League places for this season's AFC Cup winners for the new season. Because the final of this season's AFC Cup is also likely to be arranged in November, that is, within the cycle of the Top 12 competition, meaning that international players may also be absent. This may also create an opportunity for the so-called "civilian teams" to compete as dark horses.
There is another point that can not be ignored by the CFA and all parties, that is the interests of the sponsors. According to the end of 2017, the CFA Ford Bao company and Yanjing Brewery contract renewal agreement, the latter will continue to title sponsorship of the 2018 to 2021 season of the F.A.C.A. Cup, this season is the stage of the two sides of the last year of the cooperation cycle, "respect for the contract, there is a beginning and an end," the reasoning need not be repeated.
It is understood that the CFA, the work of the league preparatory group and the clubs will be held around July 5 in Shanghai or Suzhou, the league work conference, then about this season's Super League, the FA Cup competition organization will be formally launched together.
