On November 7, the CFA issued a heavy "general order" stipulating that clubs in the 2024 Chinese Super League, First Division and Second Division must submit their applications for the new season by December 5th. However, in the face of the domestic professional league clubs in the survival and operation of the many difficulties, the AFC and the CFA, hand in hand, decided to provide a two-week buffer for some of the "problem clubs" in order to supplement and optimize the access materials. This means that all clubs need to complete the submission of materials before December 19th. By the morning of December 4, most of the clubs, including many of the "troubled families", had already submitted their entry materials for the new season.
On November 26th and 27th, at the professional league meeting held in Suzhou, the CFA and the preparatory team informed all levels of the professional league schedule for the new season, which is scheduled to start on March 1st next year. As the start of the new season for all levels of leagues is much earlier than in the past, the nodes for the submission and review of entry materials have been moved forward accordingly.
On November 7, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) released a notice on the access work of Chinese Super League, Chinese First Division and Chinese Second Division clubs for the 2024 season. It is reported that in order to standardize the access process of member associations and guarantee the smooth progress of the new AFC Elite League and other tournaments, AFC requires that from the 2023 season onwards, the top and second-tier professional league clubs of member associations are required to submit their access materials to the official system of AFC.
Sources close to the matter revealed that there is a deeper reason behind the AFC's move - in the past few seasons, the Chinese Super League and the First Division have repeatedly appeared in contract disputes, wage arrears and other problems, which have occurred frequently, and in fact, also exacerbated the AFC's distrust of the access to China's professional leagues. For this reason, the AFC has put forward a request to the CFA to strictly regulate access to the Chinese Super League and First Division in the new season.
According to the Beijing Youth Daily, the CFA and its preparatory team have recently held several consultations with AFC regarding access to the Chinese Super League and Chinese League One clubs for the new season. According to the FA's workflow, the AFC agreed to provide time for "problematic clubs" to improve their access status, but not more than two weeks. Therefore, clubs interested in participating in the new Chinese Super League and Chinese League A must ensure that they submit qualified access materials before December 19th.
By the morning of December 4, most of the clubs in the Chinese Super League, Chinese First Division and Chinese Second Division had submitted their entry materials. However, some of the "problem clubs" have only submitted basic materials, such as some clubs have not provided the confirmation form of full payment of players' wages for the 2023 season as scheduled, and even if they have, their authenticity needs to be further verified.
Currently, some clubs in the third-tier leagues are experiencing greater challenges in terms of access. For example, Cangzhou Lions FC in the Chinese Super League is in dispute with coach Carnavaro over salary, and Guangzhou FC in the Chinese First Division is also facing access challenges. Unsurprisingly, the CFA and the CFL preparatory team will announce the list of clubs to be admitted to all levels of the league for the new season in batches based on the materials submitted by the clubs.
