On May 31, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) officially announced that the remaining Group A matches of the Qatar World Preliminary Asian 40 will be transferred to Dubai, UAE, originally scheduled to be held in Gusu. This sudden decision has turned the Chinese team, which was originally playing in their hometown, into an away game. The change has not only adversely affected the Chinese team's preparation and game strategy, but has also caused a lot of trouble to the scheduling of the Chinese Super League and other domestic matches.
It is reported that the Football Association after learning of this change, on the one hand, actively coordinate the relationship between all parties, as far as possible for the national football visit to create favorable conditions; on the other hand, also speed up the communication with the league alliance, to discuss the rest of the season in the Super League game schedule adjustment. As the national football team to Dubai to participate in the earliest to June 16 to depart for home, the national football players back home also need to follow the domestic epidemic regulations for a period of medical isolation observation, so the restart of the Super League may be delayed, the specific start time may be postponed to mid-July.
The Chinese Football Association (CFA) finally decided to move all the remaining matches in Group A of the 40-team tournament to Dubai after communicating with the AFC after the Maldives and Syria failed to take the scheduled flights from Dubai to Shanghai due to the outbreak of epidemics in their respective teams. This decision has had a negative impact on the Chinese team's preparation and athleticism.
In addition to the Chinese team, the Chinese Super League and other domestic soccer events have also been affected by this turn of events this season. Originally scheduled to restart on June 21, the Chinese Super League (Round 6) now faces the challenge of rescheduling. With the plan for the national football team to go to the United Arab Emirates confirmed, many international players, who are the main reliance of the Chinese Super League clubs, will not be able to leave for their home countries until June 16 at the earliest, after the completion of the 40-team tournament on June 15 (assuming that the Group A matches of the 40-team tournament are not further postponed). After returning home, they will also need to undergo various epidemic prevention inspections and related long-term medical isolation observation in accordance with the epidemic prevention regulations. In this case, I am afraid that the Chinese Super League will not be able to restart on June 21 as scheduled.
On the evening of May 30, Liu Jun, a staff member of the Football Association (FA) who is responsible for match scheduling, was present at the match between the national football team and the Guam team at the Gusau Olympic Sports Center. It is understood that before and after the confirmation of the news of the transfer of the remaining matches of the 40-team tournament to Dubai, the Football Association has been aware of the problems of the league schedule and has communicated with the league league preparation team and other relevant parties.
Informed sources revealed that from the current communication situation, the possibility of delaying the restart of the Chinese Super League is higher. On the one hand, Guangzhou City, as one of the two major cities in the Chinese Super League, the epidemic situation is grim, the tournament organizers and tournaments need to protect the lives, health and safety of personnel as the top priority of the work, the need for careful consideration of the restart of the Chinese Super League matters; on the other hand, once the international footballers need to undergo a long period of isolation after returning to their home countries, the tournament organizers must be from the perspective of the protection of fair competition, waiting for the international footballers to return to their respective clubs in good health and safety before restarting the Chinese Super League. On the other hand, once the international players have returned to their respective clubs in good health and safety, the organizers must wait for them to return to their clubs before restarting the Chinese Super League.
As of May 31, communication on related matters is still ongoing. However, from the time projection, once the Super League delayed restart, then the specific start date may have to be postponed to mid-July.
One media outlet said, "Qingdao is now actively preparing to take over the CSL's Guangzhou tournament at any time." However, as of that afternoon, there was no official information to confirm the authenticity of this news. It is understood that earlier this year, some cities did put forward bids to host the 2021 Chinese Super League season. In addition to the cities of Suzhou and Guangzhou, which were eventually awarded the hosting rights, Wuhan, Dalian and other cities also put forward their intention to bid. And as of late on the 31st, the Football Association and the League Alliance Preparation Team are still paying close attention to all kinds of information, including the epidemic situation in Guangzhou, but there is no specific plan to move the Guangzhou tournament to another location.
Another concern is that once the Chinese Super League is postponed due to the national football team going abroad, the already dense league schedule will become even more compact. If the Chinese team can successfully qualify for the Top 12, then the team does not rule out the participation of home and away matches in the Top 12, the Super League may continue to "make way" for the national football team to prepare for the game. In this case, the league is difficult to play the remaining 25 rounds of matches in a limited time. Therefore, the Football Association, the league league preparation group does not rule out the launch of the "contingency plan", will be this season's Chinese Super League schedule tightening. The specific system may refer to last season's Chinese Super League system, that is, the 3-stage tournament reduced to 2 stages, that is, after the first stage of the game, the 16 teams according to the first stage of the group stage rankings, respectively, into the championship group and relegation group, until the final ranking of each group. The relevant preliminaries have been clarified in the previously released matches of the new Super League season.
