On Nov. 25, a piece of news stirred up waves in the sports world: Beijing Youth Daily disclosed that the China League B will continue to use the qualifying mechanism of the first stage of the qualifying round and the final stage in the coming year.
The CFA distributed a draft of the "2025 CFA Major Tournament Competition Calendar (Men)" to all professional league clubs on November 21st to solicit opinions from all parties. It was revealed that the Chinese Super League and Chinese League A will maintain the current size of 16 teams, but the Chinese League B will undergo a major change, expanding from 20 teams in the 2024 season to 24 teams. Next year, China League B will be the only league among the three tiers of professional leagues to expand. The new season is expected to kick off on March 22 and end on October 26, with 30 rounds of battles throughout the season.
According to the rules of promotion and relegation, the top four teams of this season's Champions League - Shenzhen 2028, Guizhou Chuksung Athletic, Guangdong Minto and Guangzhou Anhua - will be ranked in the second division. Some analysts have pointed out that some investors in low-level clubs hold the mentality of testing the water to join in, if the investment is appropriate, the success of the promotion will be conducive to the club's future investment; if the result is not good, you can also quickly withdraw or transfer, stop loss in time. In contrast, the risk of investing in low-level clubs is low, which is also the reason why the heat of the Champions League and League B has risen in recent years.
It is reported that the format of the new season will remain the same as that of the 2024 season, with a qualifying round and a final stage qualifying round. 24 teams will be evenly distributed between the North and South divisions in a double round-robin tournament. The top four teams from the North and South divisions (8 teams in total) will advance to the final stage to compete for promotion, while the remaining 8 teams will be divided into two relegation groups to play the second stage of the competition (a two-legged match between the two sides). It is worth noting that the teams that met in the qualifiers will not play each other in the second stage. In addition, the champion and runner-up clubs of the 2024 U21 League season will also qualify for the 2025 S2 League season.
