On the spring-like afternoon of April 1, the first phase of the 2021 season of the China League 1 group draw was shockingly revealed! 18 teams in the midst of a fierce battle were skillfully assigned to the Meizhou, Dalian/Chengdu, and Wuhan divisions. Among them, Zhejiang is lucky to be thrown into the Meizhou division, while Chengdu Rongcheng and Wuhan Sanzhen will be sweating it out on their home turf. According to the established plan, the new season of the Central League will be in full swing on April 24, when Wuhan will be the venue for the opening ceremony.
The new season of the Chinese League will be fiercely contested in three divisions - Meizhou, Dalian/Chengdu and Wuhan - and the tournament will be launched on April 24th with a bang. The opening ceremony and opening match will also be hosted by Wuhan, the city of passionate matches. This season's China League One adopts a four-stage double round-robin system with a total of 34 rounds of matches, with 10, 8, 8 and 8 rounds of matches in each stage respectively.
In the first stage, host teams Meizhou Hakka, Chengdu Rongcheng and Wuhan Sanzhen were seeded in Groups A, B and C respectively. The remaining 15 teams are serpentine in accordance with the 2020 league rankings and are directly locked into Groups A, B and C with six teams in each group. It is worth mentioning that Group B consists of two tournaments, Dalian and Chengdu. It is reported that Dalian will host the first two stages of the tournament, while Chengdu will be responsible for the latter two stages.
In the following stages 2, 3 and 4, the ranking of teams will be rotated based on their performance in the first stage. Each stage is divided into 3 groups, with double round-robin competition within the groups, but there will be no more face-offs between teams in the same group in the same stage. Stages 2, 3 and 4 will each have 8 rounds of play, culminating in 34 rounds of play. The total number of points will be the key to determine the ranking of this season's Central League.
The top two teams in this season's Central League A will be promoted directly to the Chinese Super League, while the 3rd and 4th place teams will play a promotion and relegation playoff against the bottom 1 and bottom 2 teams in the Chinese Super League, with the winners earning a spot in the Chinese Super League and the losers staying in the Central League A. The bottom 1 and bottom 2 teams of the Central League A will play the 3rd and 4th place teams of the Central League B in a promotion and relegation playoff, with the winners staying in the Central League A and the losers being relegated to the Central League B.
Here are the details of the first stage groupings for the 2021 season of the Central League:
Meizhou Region: Meizhou Hakka, Zhejiang, Shaanxi Chang'an Athletic, Sichuan Jiuniu, Zibo Cuju, Xinjiang Tianshan Snow Leopard
Dalian-Chengdu Region: Chengdu Rongcheng, Kunshan Team, Beijing North Sports University, Nantong Zhiyun, Jiangxi North Gate, Nanjing City
