Reporter Cheng Shan reported that the 2021 season of the Chinese First Division (main tournament) set a historical record: the war was ignited on April 24, and the curtain came to an end on December 22, the season spanned 242 days, and after four stages of 34 rounds of 306 matches, it was successfully concluded in Wuhan, Chengdu and Meizhou Wuhua. In the regular season, the "host" Meizhou Hakka pressed the whistle to counter the counterattack; the play-offs hosted by the Meizhou Division, Qingdao Qingchun Island and Beijing Polytechnic fought to the last penalty. During this period, it also experienced the epidemic storm in Dalian and the wage arrears crisis of the Guizhou team, but in the end, with the cooperation of the organizers, local governments and teams, all problems were properly resolved, and the Chinese League A ended successfully. Everyone who has been through the competition said that the 2021 China League One is worth remembering and proud of all participants.
The 2020 Chinese League One seems to be too hurried, starting on September 12 and completing the match completely on November 22. In the one-month period of the regular season, 18 teams and three groups played 90 games, and the second stage played 45 games, counting the promotion and relegation play-offs, a total of 151 games. The time is too tight, the schedule is too short, and it is too short to resemble a professional league. Perhaps because there are too few games, only 1.5 promotion places have been given to the Chinese First Division, and the second-ranked Zhejiang team lost in the play-off match with Wuhan and continued to lie dormant in the Middle Division, but this temporary change in the number of promotion places has also caused great criticism, which is obviously unfair to the Chinese First Division team.
In 2021, due to the change in the main body of league management, the Chinese Football Association transferred the three levels of league management to the preparatory group of the Chinese Professional Football Club Federation (China Football Federation), and the Preparatory Group of the China Football Federation carried out a major reform of the Chinese League A format in 2021: first, based on the improvement of the epidemic prevention environment of the whole country compared with 2020, and second, based on the accumulation of certain experience in the 2020 season, The third and most important point is because it is fully considered that due to the expansion of the Chinese Super League in 2022, it will increase the sum of the direct promotion quota and the play-off place in the Chinese First Division, so only a sufficient duel can make the generation of places have real fairness to speak of, and then choose a super short schedule is obviously inappropriate.
Finally, under the leadership of the Preparatory Group of the China Football Federation, the 2021 China League A finalized four stages, three groups, four divisions (Dalian people - Chengdu jointly hosted the same group), 34 rounds of a total of 306 matches of the schedule. If you add to the A and B play-offs and super-A play-offs, the final number of matches related to the Middle A reaches 314. The grouping of the 2021 season of the Chinese League A used the snake-like arrangement method to give all teams a full chance to compete, and the strength of 18 teams was fully demonstrated.
After the first three stages of the league, Meizhou Hakka, Wuhan Sanzhen, Zhejiang and Chengdu Rongcheng led the way in the standings. Interestingly, counting the 6th-ranked Kunshan team, the top 6 teams in the standings at that time gathered in Meizhou in the fourth stage, which allowed the suspense of the rush to continue. So is it all a coincidence? Apparently not. This is a planned design plan, according to the 2020 Ranking of the Chinese League A, the team that is likely to rush to a group, so as to avoid the possibility of the so-called tacit ball to the greatest extent, if at least 4 of the 6 teams are involved in the overtaking, then the competition in this group will be more intense.
The successful completion of the Chinese First Division schedule is inseparable from the strong support of the four divisions, and it is also very important that the Chinese First Division schedule itself is not interfered with by the national team competition, as long as the normal interval can be carried out, and there is no need for a dense schedule of three days and one competition.
Refereeing work is always the focus and difficulty of the league. This is especially true for the 2021 season of the Chinese League One. Looking back at the 2020 season, the total number of matches in all 10 categories added up to 769, and the referees selected 548 referees and referees to supervise 548 times, and 100 game supervisors. In the 2021 season, the number of games in the First Division alone reached 306 games, almost half of the total number of games last year, and a total of 28 referees were selected to supervise in the four stages of the Chinese First Division (14 referees in the Chinese Super League and 14 referees in the Chinese First Division); 127 referees and assistant referees (28 referees in the Chinese Super League, 24 assistant referees in the Chinese Super League, 40 referees in the Chinese First Division, and 35 assistant referees in the Chinese First Division), completing 306 law enforcement work, with a total of 1578 people selected. The selection workload of the Chinese First Division referees alone exceeds the total number of referees in all league divisions in the 2020 season.
The entire referee management work in the 2021 season has been adjusted, of which the league part belongs to the collective management of the referee department of the China Football Federation, and then the league at different levels will send the corresponding supervisor, the main person in charge of the referee management of the Chinese League A is Cui Enlei, affiliated to the Referee Department of the Chinese Football Association, the director of the referee department of the Chinese Football Association, who was seconded to the China Football Federation this season to assist in the management and coordination of the referees of the Chinese Football Federation, and he has been in the competition area from beginning to end throughout the season.
"The transfer of referees in the 2021 season is more complicated, which has a lot to do with the schedule. Because the 2020 season of the Chinese First Division is from September 12 to October 15, the first stage of the Chinese Super League has been played, and the second stage of the Chinese First Division began on October 24, and all the matches including the play-offs were over on November 22, and from October 15 to October 24, the Chinese Super League played some games. In this way, it has brought sufficient convenience to coordinate high-level referees between the Chinese Super League and the Chinese First Division. But the 2021 season is very different, because once it enters the division closure, it takes a long time, and it is a game that lasts for 8 months in four stages, all referees have their own jobs, and the blow penalty league is only part-time, so no referee can fully blow the middle league in all four stages, and the total number of events in the 2021 season is more than twice that of the 2020 season, the growth of the number, the span of the season and the overlap of the two stages of the Chinese Super League, including the Chinese Second Division. Referee arrangements and coordination are more than ever in any previous season, almost unprecedented. ”
Cui Enlei introduced the difficulty of referee management in the Chinese League A to this reporter, because some referees can only blow a few penalties to return to their jobs, and then after a period of time to ask for leave to come again, because the division has strict epidemic prevention regulations, so the vast majority of referees can not be easily replaced after entering the competition area, therefore, the level of law enforcement of the referee is certainly difficult to send the most elite referees as much as possible like the normal home and away games, first of all, with law enforcement qualifications, can take leave to enter the competition area to participate in law enforcement, willing to learn to cooperate with the work, It is not easy to find those who meet these conditions, and on this basis, try to select experienced experience and attach other conditions.
"First of all, the number of matches is guaranteed to be normally arranged by the referee, and then the number of matches is arranged according to experience. Generally speaking, those who do not have much law enforcement experience should consider arranging some teams that mainly control the ball under their feet and have less intense physical confrontation to blow penalties. This is one of the priorities of our work in arranging and managing referees. Cui Enlei told reporters that due to the epidemic, it is difficult to find more external referees, and the multi-division of the tournament system is concentrated at the same time, and the objective number of referees is huge, so the 2021 season of the referee department boldly enabled and cultivated many new people.
"Always give these referees the opportunity to let them grow from the middle B to the Chinese First Division platform, from the Chinese First Division to the Chinese Super League platform, and the experience is accumulated little by little, and grows little by little." In the first few rounds of the first few rounds of the Chinese First Division, we encountered some difficulties, just the start of the competition of the teams are very fierce and hot, the 6th round of 9 games appeared 6 red cards, then this we analyze the reasons, there are team tactical reasons, there are also referee control reasons, we have not denied, referee law enforcement ability there is still a lot of room for improvement. From the club's side, in the face of some new referees, they will also have some discomfort and even concerns, which need to be solved by us through work and communication. ”
The refereeing work of the Chinese First Division is not without questions and criticisms, and Cui Enlei, as the referee supervisor of the Chinese First Division, he directly faces these doubts and accusations, and together with director Zhou Dequan, the general head of the referee department, on the one hand, communicates with the referees and strengthens business learning, and at the same time, together with the head of the Chinese Football Federation, finds the clubs to communicate, finds problems and solves problems, and eliminates everyone's doubts. With the deepening of the game, the run-in of the Chinese First Division is getting better and better.
In order to ensure the smooth conclusion of the final stage of the Chinese Football Federation, Shi Qiang, the leader of the preparatory group of the China Football Federation, and Liu Jun, the deputy leader of the group, were stationed in the Meizhou Division to supervise various work on the spot, and at the same time strengthened the refereeing force, selected the excellent referees of the Chinese Super League to enforce the law, and introduced VAR (video assistant referee) to ensure that there will be no mistakes and missed judgments to the greatest extent.
This decision proved to be very timely. On the closing day of the league, the two games related to the last direct overtaking place were involved by video assistant referees. Meizhou Hakka's match with Kunshan was in the second half, and a suspected penalty that appeared in the Kunshan team's penalty area was confirmed after VAR intervened that the attacking player was offside, when Meizhou Hakka was behind with a goal. In another match, Zhejiang's goal of equalizing was blown offside, but the goal was confirmed by VAR to be valid. The introduction of VAR further ensures the fairness and impartiality of the competition.
Why didn't VAR be used extensively in China A? This needs to be considered comprehensively. VAR is a secondary law enforcement tool that has emerged in recent years, and China's best referees have grown up in an environment of independent law enforcement, and having VAR will make law enforcement more perfect, but it cannot become a habit and dependence. After this season's close schedule of running-in, the referees of the law enforcement middle division have been fully trained and grown, and no matter what the format of the new season, I believe that there will be more excellent referees for the referee management department to choose, because accelerating the competition of referees is also a very helpful thing for the improvement and progress of the referee level.
In the field of Chinese professional football, any other level of league except the Chinese Super League has a lot less attention and attention, but the 2021 season of the Chinese League is different. "In fact, in the mind of the head of the preparatory group of the Chinese Football Federation, the Chinese Super League, the Chinese First Division and the Chinese Second Division are only different in league levels, but for the organization and management of the event, the importance is the same, because each club is the most important for the owners and investors of the club, and it is the principle of work that the Preparatory Group of the China Football Federation has repeatedly emphasized to us, the staff who have gone deep into the competition area, and we have done it this way." Yang Guang, who is in charge of the general coordinator of the China League One division, said in an interview with this reporter.
In fact, in the work of the 2021 season of the Chinese First Division and the Chinese Second Division, the relevant person in charge of the Preparatory Group of the China Football Federation has paid more attention, whether it is the group leader Shi Qiang, the deputy team leader Liu Jun, or the deputy director of the referee department Guo Bingyan, they all went deep into the front line of the Chinese First Division to work, responsible for solving many practical problems, especially when the Chinese First Division encountered sudden problems, they got the cooperation of all the teams, so that the matter was finally solved smoothly.
A total of four divisions were selected, of which Dalian and Chengdu are considered to be a total division, the first half is in Dalian, the second half is in Chengdu, and Meizhou and Wuhan are the other two divisions. The opening ceremony and opening match of the 2021 China League One was held in Wuhan, which is the first time that Wuhan has held a large-scale national sports event after the epidemic in 2020, and it is a CCTV live broadcast, and for all the staff of the division, the pressure on their shoulders is not just a league. More than 12,000 spectators witnessed the opening ceremony of the Chinese First Division.
In the city of heroes, medical staff, courier brothers, volunteers, public security, sanitation representatives walked on the court, on behalf of the city that has experienced hardships but finally stood up bravely to give a thumbs up to the people of the whole country, many on-site audience members were in tears. Before the start of the fourth phase of the Chinese First Division, there was an epidemic in Dalian, and several teams that had participated in the competition or training in Dalian needed to enter the Wuhan Division, when the Wuhan Health Commission raised the epidemic prevention indicators to the highest level, in order to cooperate with the local epidemic prevention policy in Wuhan, the Chinese League A event had to be postponed for ten days, in order to let the teams with a history of Dalian enter and exit complete the isolation and nucleic acid, lung CT testing work, in fact, this also requires the leadership of the Preparatory Group of the Chinese Football Federation and the local government, the Health Commission, The division supervisor conducts multi-party consultation, fully obeys the local command on the basis of respecting and cooperating with the local quarantine work, and realizes a completely closed-loop management from the arrival of the team to the entry of the division, so that the Chinese First Division finally starts smoothly.
"The sudden outbreak of the epidemic in Dalian was something we did not expect, and when the leaders coordinated the opening of the Wuhan Division, they also resolutely arranged for 12 teams from the Chengdu and Meizhou Divisions to enter the Division in advance to do a good job of closed management to ensure that other divisions were foolproof in the epidemic prevention work, so that the Wuhan side of the problem would be solved and the collective start would be smoothly and smoothly immediately after the problem was solved." The pressure from Wuhan as the overall coordinator of the division is fully understood, and the Wuhan side finally ensured the smooth start of the Chinese First Division, which also reflects their responsibility and responsibility.
This season is the second year that Meizhou has become a division for the Chinese First Division. In order to ensure the smooth progress of the competition at all stages of the league, under the unified command of leaders at all levels in Meizhou City and Wuhua County, the operation team of the football town has held coordination and layout meetings of various departments many times, made detailed arrangements for the protection work such as epidemic prevention and control, and formulated the overall work plan and sub-plans of various work. In addition to the Meizhou Hakka and Zhejiang teams that have been participating in the Meizhou Division this season, Wuhua Hengpi Town also received the remaining 16 Chinese League A teams, and completed the logistical support work in terms of venue facilities, training matches, food, accommodation, and transportation.
The Meizhou Division ensures that each team has a separate dormitory building, and there is enough space to ensure that training items are placed. Among them, the first floor is vacant, allowing the teams to carry out activities, billiards, table tennis or some training can be carried out in their own building. Moreover, the training ground here ensures that each team has a professional football field, which is very close to the accommodation building and can be reached on foot. Under the premise of strict management of epidemic prevention work in the competition area, we will try to enrich the amateur life of the participating teams and all the referees and staff, hold a number of events and a variety of entertainment activities, so that all the personnel who have been closed in the competition area for a long time can relax as much as possible.
Dalian Division and Chengdu Division have completed a perfect connection, Chengdu Division has events in the first half of the year, and Dalian Division enters the second half of the year when the climate turns cold and it is not suitable for outdoor competitions. Dalian Division has always been to receive Chinese Super League teams, this is the first large-scale reception of Chinese League A teams in the past two years, Dalian people base hardware facilities and software conditions, so that the staying teams have the feeling of returning to the Chinese Super League. Because of the early warning of the outbreak of the epidemic in Dalian and the improvement of the prevention and control level in Wuhan, Chengdu has formed a special "double blue zone" operation model to deal with the emergency. In the "double blue zone" mode, the competition area implements strict prevention and control measures from the team, referee and staff stationed in the hotel to the training ground and the competition field, and at the same time implements every link and checks at all levels to ensure that the team and related staff complete the settlement in early November, and finally ensure the smooth completion of the event.
After successfully playing all the competitions of the Chinese First Division, the Preparatory Group of the China Football Federation expressed its gratitude to the local governments, functional departments at all levels, local sports bureaus, associations and all the staff of the four divisions, and many teams expressed their gratitude to the receptionists of their respective divisions in different ways. In the most difficult moments, Chinese football embodies the spirit of unity, perseverance and hard work, only in this way can we wait for the cold winter to pass as soon as possible and the spring to arrive earlier.
Compared with the unpaid wage situation in the middle and large area, the Chinese League One is relatively better, but in the process of the whole season, it is not without crisis. After the end of the first stage, the problem of the Guizhou team broke out first, the players openly asked for salaries in the media, and then there was constant news that the Guizhou team could not even afford to pay the remaining stage of the game, and even several times it was rumored that the Guizhou team would withdraw from the 2021 season of the Chinese League A from the second generation stage.
If a team withdraws in the middle, this will have a certain impact on the schedule of the entire league, and it will have a negative impact on the image of the entire league and the image of Chinese football. But Guizhou does have huge financial pressures, including the liquidated damages of former head coach Manzano, as well as the arrears of nearly 10 months of salaries and the ban by FIFA from bringing in any players for three years, a series of problems that have made Guizhou's investment frustrated and see contradictions on the verge of erupting.
For the football image and league of any country, it is extremely bad for a team to withdraw from the game in the middle, and in Chinese professional football under the shroud of economic crisis, if Guizhou opens this mouth, it is likely to have a chain reaction of dominoes, not necessarily the Chinese First Division, but also may trigger the sensitive nerves of some investors in the Chinese Super League, making the problem more complicated.
To this end, the Preparatory Group of the China Football Federation actively assisted the club to solve the problem, assisted the club to negotiate and communicate with the relevant local departments, fully understood the difficulties of the players and the situation of the investors, and also explained to the club owners the problems and where the difficulties were solved in the middle of the season.
In fact, in the whole process of the league, the relevant person in charge of the China Football Federation went deep into the different divisions of the Chinese First Division and the Chinese Second Division to directly contact the club, so that the problem was detected early, communicated early, and solved early, because the status of the Chinese First Division and the Chinese Second Division was different from that of the Chinese Super League club to some extent, and some things such as relying only on the club itself to communicate may not be able to convey to the responsible department at the first time. In order not to let the crisis turn into a problem, this year's management work, the China Football Federation Preparatory Group has also been widely praised by the Chinese League A and B clubs. "Do practical things and don't avoid problems." It should be a high evaluation given by the clubs to the CFA preparatory group, which has just begun to take over the league in 2021.
The difficulties have not yet passed, and Chinese football may have to live another period of hard life. In the 2021 season, the Chinese League One witnessed the common growth of the management team, referees and young players, and also made the staff from different departments form a deep friendship. If there is anything that has been gained this year, it is that if Chinese football holds any major events in the future, there should be more experienced professionals involved in it, and a considerable part of them come from the backbone of each division.