Back on June 26th in Beijing, an explosive news came out quietly: this season's Chinese Super League's system adjustment program has already taken shape. The Super League is expected to resume on July 18, with the completion of the first round of nine rounds of fixtures, followed closely by a break to allow sufficient time for the national soccer team to prepare for the Round of 12 tournament. The third stage of the league is expected to restart at the end of December, when eight rounds of matches will be played for a total of 22 rounds, although the system will be changed compared to last year, and it is highly likely that the use of the two-by-two screening system to determine the final rankings will be abandoned.
Premier League expected to restart July 18th
Meanwhile, the national soccer team is undergoing quarantine training at the Xiangguli Hotel in Suzhou, and despite the quarantine period, the players are still maintaining their daily training under the leadership of head coach Li Tie. The teams have also assembled to prepare for the second phase of the league. Shanghai Shenhua chose to go to Dalian for a two-week training, while more teams such as Shanghai Harbor and Hebei FC chose to stay at their home bases to prepare for the game. As of the 26th, the teams have yet to receive the adjusted league schedule and specific start time. "The approximate time is in the middle to late July, but the official notice has not yet been received," a club official told reporters, "The team is currently preparing for the game around the time point of July 18."
All indications are that the possibility of the Chinese Super League restarting on July 18 is extremely high. 15 and 16 will see two bye matches between Guangzhou and Henan Songshan Longmen, and Beijing Guoan and Hebei. According to the preliminary plan of the Chinese Super League, the 14 matches of the first and second phases will be completed in nearly a month from July 18 to mid-August, and the 12-team tournament will officially start on September 2, before which the league will need to leave about 15 days of preparation time for the national football team. This means that the league will basically play a game every three days, the hot weather plus intensive journey, for the Super League teams, is undoubtedly a severe test.
Due to the fact that there are 12-team tournaments in September, October and November, taking into account the home and away factors, the national football team will also need to be quarantined against epidemics after the completion of the tournament, so the third stage of the league is likely to be restarted only at the beginning of December. For this season's league schedule, the Chinese Super League has also considered a variety of options, before the rumors of the most extreme one is even reduced to 15 rounds of this season's league.
Completion of 22 rounds of the tournament and abandonment of the two-by-two screening system
However, the current synthesis of the voices of all parties, the possibility of completing 22 rounds of matches in this season's Chinese Super League, the length of this schedule is the same as last season, but compared with the second half of last season's double-round screening system, this season's league, although the same 22 rounds, but the game system is likely to be adjusted significantly. After the first 14 rounds of matches, the two divisions of Suzhou and Guangzhou will be divided into a championship and a relegation group based on their rankings. The four teams in the championship group will play eight rounds of home-and-away crossover matches against the top four teams from the different divisions to determine the final rankings based on their points, and the same will be true for the relegation group. However, teams from the same division will not meet again in the third stage of the competition.
For example, the top four teams in Suzhou, such as Shanghai Seaport, will play the top four teams in Guangzhou one by one in the third stage, but the other three top four teams in Suzhou will not play Shanghai Seaport again in the third stage of the league. The points from the first 14 rounds of the league plus the points from these 8 matches will make up the final league total. The teams in the relegation zone will also determine their final standings and which teams will participate in the play-offs.
Such an adjustment greatly reduces the risk of chance compared to the two-round screening system, avoids the unreasonable situation in last year's league where a team could be relegated early despite not winning a single regular season game, and better reflects a team's performance throughout the league year. The only regret is that each team is destined to miss out on four teams from different divisions and different points zones this season, and will not have the opportunity to play each other throughout the year. But that's a no-brainer under the existing circumstances.
If the third phase of the league kicks off in early December, the eight-round tournament is still expected to be completed by New Year's Day.
