Alarmed to learn that Beijing Youth Daily disclosed on May 15 that Haikou City has started the approval process for some divisions of the new season of the Chinese Super League, which is progressing well. The preparatory team of CFA and CFL is scheduled to submit the detailed program for the start of the new season to the relevant departments on May 16, the day starting next Monday. If the program is successfully approved, the new season is expected to kick off on June 3, and is expected to continue until the end of mid-November. According to the model of the 2022 season, the group tournament system will be used, and the three major regions of Haikou, Dalian and Meizhou will share the four stages of the tournament.
Haikou Wuyuanhe Stadium Panorama
Against this backdrop, Haikou became the only venue that the organizers of the Chinese Super League fought for. on May 10th, an inspection team formed by the CFA and the CFL preparatory team carried out a comprehensive inspection of the training and competition venues and hotels in Haikou, and Haikou was equally enthusiastic about hosting Chinese Super League matches. After a series of approval procedures, Haikou Match Zone finally confirmed that it will host one of the divisional matches of the new Chinese Super League season.
With the selection process for the three major divisions nearing completion this weekend, the CFA plans to submit a complete set of proposals for the start of the new Chinese Super League season to higher authorities on Monday, May 16th. Once the proposal is approved, the organizers will officially notify the clubs and relevant parties involved in the league.
The new Premier League season is expected to open on June 3, according to plans submitted by the organizers. Although the exact time of the end of the season is uncertain due to the epidemic and other factors, the tournament is striving to be completed by mid-November, before the opening of the World Cup in Qatar. This season's Super League will be divided into four phases, taking into account the earliest to start in early June, even if the use of international match days, 34 rounds of matches in more than five months to complete the schedule of the compactness of the tournament. The organizers plan to play the first two phases of the tournament closely together in order to shorten the break between the two phases and provide teams with four to six days of transit time, with the first two phases of the tournament expected to end in mid-August.
The opening ceremony of the new Chinese Super League season will be held at the Woyuanhe Stadium in the Haikou district, which is expected to take place on the evening of June 3rd. The opening match will see defending champions Shandong Taishan take on another team in the same group. Although it has been announced that Taishan's opponent will be Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic, the organizers have not yet made a final decision.
Due to the impact of the epidemic, the first and second phases of the new Chinese Super League season will adopt a group match system, and the matches will not be open to the public. During the tournament, all relevant staff, service personnel and media reporters will be divided into "epidemic-proof blue zone" and "epidemic-proof green zone", a measure consistent with the previous one or two seasons of the Super League.
There is no definite answer as to whether spectators will be allowed in the third and fourth stages, or even if the home-and-away system will be restored. If the whole season adopts the group tournament system, then the three major tournament zones of Haikou, Dalian and Meizhou will be responsible for all the tournaments. Of course, the organizers will launch a contingency plan if individual regions cannot continue to hold the tournament due to force majeure factors such as epidemics or venues.
