At 19:30 BST on June 8, Dalian People and Guangzhou City faced off in the second round of the Chinese Super League. In the first half, Sun Guowen broke the deadlock with a long-distance shot, and Yan Xianggong added another goal; while in the second half, Li Tixiang made some progress, but the goal was ruled invalid, and finally Dalian People won 2-0 over Guangzhou City.
As the match came to an end, Guangzhou City club officials issued a furious protest, accusing Dalian Ren of irregularities in substitutions and violating Chinese Super League rules, demanding that Dalian Ren be ruled out of that match.
Official response from the CFL:
On June 8, 7:30 pm, Wuyuanhe Stadium in Haikou witnessed a match between Dalian Ren and Guangzhou City. In the 67th minute of the match, Dalian substitutes Huang Jiahui, while in the 69th minute, Wang Tengda and Zhao Jianbo came on as substitutes. There was not a single U23 player on the pitch between Huang Jiahui's departure and Wang Tengda and Zhao Jianbo's arrival.
According to Article 10.9 of the 2022 Chinese Super League Regulations, at least one U23 player must be present in every match, unless due to injury, red card or other reasons. If this rule is violated, the match will be treated as a forfeit and the League Disciplinary Committee will also penalize the offending club.
It is worth mentioning that the Chinese Super League officials did not notify Dalian Ren FC before the match that they could enjoy the U23 player reduction policy. Therefore, our club protests against Dalian Ren's violation and formally requests the league to rule Dalian Ren's match invalid.
