Reporter Lu Mi reported that in two consecutive months, the General Office of the State General Administration of Sport has successively issued relevant documents for the "Sports General Cup" three major ball city leagues. In terms of football, the registration for the new season of the China City Football League officially started, and the start time and the opening period were planned.
On February 22, the "2022 "Sports Cup" China City Football League Competition Regulations (Draft for Comments)" released to the sports administrative units of various municipalities further refined the rules for participation in the city football league.
This event will be officially opened in May, hosted by the All-China Sports Federation and hosted by the relevant city governments, about the similarities and differences between this event and the professional league, as well as its unique advantages, this newspaper has also made an interpretation.
On January 6, the Department of Competitive Sports of the State General Administration of Sport issued the Notice of the General Administration of Sports on Doing a Good Job in the Pre-registration of the Three Major Ball City Leagues of the "Sports General Cup". The "Notice" wrote that after the study and decision of the General Administration of Sports, from 2022, the three major city leagues of the "Sports Cup" will be established in the name of the All-China Sports Federation with the city as the participating unit.
The football city league, one of the three major balls, has already begun to organize the work a few days ago. This newspaper learned that on February 22, the General Office of the State General Administration of Sport issued the "Notice of the General Office of the General Administration of Sport on the Relevant Matters of the 2022 "Sports Cup" Three Major Ball Chinese City League" and the "2022 "Sports Cup" China City Football League Competition Regulations (Draft for Comment)" to all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government. For the establishment of the football city league, the preparation work and the relevant competition regulations are issued to all units.
The "Sports Cup" China City Football League is a national annual league with cities as the main body, referred to as "City Football League". The full English name is "CHINACITYFOOTBALLLEAGUE", referred to as "CCFL".
The organizer of this new event is the All-China Sports Federation, and the organizer is the relevant city government (sports administrative unit). Unlike the domestic professional leagues and the Chinese Football Association, in the city football league, the Chinese Football Association has become the same "support unit" as the sports administrative departments of the relevant provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government). The management and operation of the event is responsible for the Football Competition Department of the General Sports Commission, and the organizational units of all parties are led by the General Sports Competition Committee to jointly establish the City Football League Organizing Committee. The organizer will take the lead in jointly establishing the organizing committees of each division, which shall be responsible for the competition area in accordance with the relevant regulations of the General Sports Competition Committee.
The City Football League has set out an official start time and period, which is scheduled to be held from May to December 2022, and the specific time and place of the game will be announced separately. Since the pre-registration notice was issued in January, so far, 135 city teams have registered for men's football, 72 for women's football, and the actual number of participating teams will be notified by the General Sports Commission after the official registration is confirmed.
As we all know, the domestic professional leagues, especially the Chinese Super League, are planning to start in April this year, and the competent authorities are also coordinating with various localities to restore the home-and-away format this season, but there is no final result yet. The city football league, the proposed time, coincides with the time of the domestic professional league in the new season, and at the same time, it is also planned to play home and away games at a specific stage.
The 2022 City Football League will set up three stages: the divisional classification competition, the regional competition, and the finals: the first stage is divided into divisions according to the principle of separation, proximity and fairness of the same province (autonomous region and municipality directly under the central government), and the single round robin competition is adopted in the tournament system; after the end of the divisional competition, it is ranked according to the points of the divisional competition and enters the relevant level league respectively;
In the second stage of the regional competition, the first division of the league is close and evenly divided into two regions, the south and the north. Other leagues are nearby and divided into several regions on average (specific circumstances, determined by the actual number of participating teams), in principle, adopt a home-and-away double-round robin format, and if it cannot be implemented due to epidemic prevention and control policies, it adopts a conference system, multi-stage, single-round robin or double-round robin format;
The third stage is the finals, which will determine the champion and runner-up and the third and fourth places, and the size of the finals of each level league is proposed to be 8 teams, and the principle is to play in the final stage first. The final stage is also carried out in divisions, and in principle, the home-and-away two-legged elimination system is adopted, except for the cause of the epidemic.
It is worth noting that the City Football League still has a promotion and relegation, which will be implemented between the leagues.
The draft competition regulations are based on the 135 teams that have pre-registered as an example, and the specific competition methods are displayed, and the final version is subject to the "City Football League Competition Notice" issued after the confirmation of the actual participating teams.
The format of the City Football League, while respecting the basic rules of football matches, also has many characteristics and innovations that are different from existing professional leagues.
Compared with the 18-man roster per game in the professional league, the number of applicants per team in the city league can reach a maximum of 23, of which the number of foreign players is up to 3. A maximum of 5 players per team is allowed to be replaced per game, and each team may not make more than 3 substitutions during the course of the match, except for personnel adjustments at halftime. These rules are the same as the current rules of the Chinese Super League, and the two biggest points are the points rule.
In each game of the City League, the winner will be divided into winners and losers during the 90-minute regular game time, the winner will get 3 points, the loser will get 0 points, if the 90 minutes of regular game time are drawn, the winner will be directly divided by penalties, the winner will get 1 point, and the loser will get 0 points. That is to say, each game of the City Football League will be divided into winners and losses, and there will be no draws, and this format will significantly improve the suspense of the game.
The innovation of the city football league in the format also includes: the first two stages of the divisional classification competition, the regional competition using the points system, the final stage of the finals is the use of the knockout system, the final champion will also be produced through the knockout format. In the red and yellow card suspension system, the city football league is also different from the professional league, the athlete or team official in a game by the referee to show a red card, or accumulate 3 yellow cards in the annual game, the next game will be suspended, in the number of cumulative yellow card suspension, to be stricter than the professional league's "four yellow suspension". In addition, the red and yellow cards presented in each stage of the competition are carried to the next stage, including the divisional competition, the national final, the qualifying competition, and the relegation competition.
First of all, the Draft for Comments clearly stipulates that prefecture-level cities (including autonomous prefectures, leagues, regions) and cities above are eligible to participate in the competition, that is to say, the minimum administrative level of participating cities is prefecture-level cities. Take Meizhou City, Guangdong Province, for example, because the main body of the club's investment and the team's home stadium are located in Wuhua County all year round, Meizhou Hakka is also known as the first county-level team in the history of the Chinese Super League. If Meizhou Hakka team participates in the city league, it can only participate in the qualifications of Meizhou city representatives, and Wuhua County is not eligible to participate in the team alone. There are currently nearly 400 prefecture-level cities on the mainland, all of which are eligible to form teams to participate in the City League.
In addition, the City Football League implements annual registration. This provision can be understood to mean that the city teams participating in the City Football League each year are registered separately, regardless of the performance of the previous year, and can also be guaranteed to recruit new city teams at any time. While ensuring the number of teams participating in the competition every year, it will help to continue to expand the population base of Chinese football.
City self-built teams can participate, as can existing professional or semi-professional club teams, but with conditions attached. Club teams that have participated in the relevant leagues of the Chinese Football Association and other associations, such as participating in the City League, in addition to meeting the conditions for obtaining the qualification to participate, must issue a written commitment letter to the General Competition Committee of the Sports Federation to ensure that they will not withdraw from the league organized by the Chinese Football Association and other associations because of participating in the City Football League.
That is to say, if professional teams in various places want to participate in the city football league, they need to form another team under the conditions of eligibility, such as allowing the echelon team that meets the age of participation to participate, or allowing the players who cannot play in the first team to participate, but they cannot quit the league and sign up for the city football league. This provision can be seen as a kind of policy protection for professional competitions that may be affected after the establishment of the City Football League.
The provisions of the City Football League for the qualifications of participating players are relatively relaxed, in simple terms, citizens of the People's Republic of China who have reached the age of 16 and live, work and study in the city where the registered team is located (subject to the second-generation ID card, including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan), can participate in the competition after obtaining the "City Football League Player Qualification Registration Certificate" and completing the unified registration and registration on the competition information management platform of the General Sports Competition Committee.
The roster of registered players is a minimum of 18 and a maximum of 50, of which there are not less than 3 goalkeepers. After the start of the new season of the City Football League, in addition to the 50-player registration roster, each team is also allowed to bring in up to 10 under-19 players who enter the City Football League team for the first time. After qualifying for the competition according to the regulations, they can enter the list of players on the field to participate in the competition (players under the age of 16 who are really capable of participating in the competition must be approved by the General Sports Competition Committee). Such players transferred to other teams must comply with the provisions of the Supplementary Registration and Registration Changes.
The rules on the qualification of players show that the city football league can indeed attract the widest range of people to participate, and in some areas with football populations but professional clubs are still lagging behind, the rise of the city football league can give them the guarantee of growth and development. Predictably, in this tournament, semi-professional and even pure amateur players can compete with professional players.
The City League does not exclude professional teams from participating in the team, and naturally accepts domestic professional players to participate, although it is stipulated that players with a record of appearances in the Chinese Super League since 2016 are excluded, but it is clear that players who have not played in the Chinese Super League in the lower leagues have obtained job opportunities outside the professional leagues, and some people may give up continuing to participate in the lower professional leagues, and some people may have both if the two competitions do not conflict.
It is worth mentioning that players participating in the City Football League will unconditionally obey the national team recruitment at all levels (including national training teams). Players absent from 3 or more games due to the recruitment of national teams at all levels, during which each player is drawn, the corresponding city league team is allowed to make up one person, but the number of 50 people registering for the big list remains unchanged. Players participating in the city league who are injured in national team competitions and training at all levels and cannot participate in the rest of the season, after confirmation by the national team team doctor, the corresponding team may apply for additional players with the corresponding quota.
The City Football League allows foreign aid, but regarding the introduction and qualification of foreign aid, the Draft for Comments only mentions two places: one is the recognition of qualifications, "foreigners working and studying in the city (mainly passports), except for active professional players registered with relevant associations"; second, the number of players is stipulated, "each team can report a minimum of 15 players and a maximum of 23 players, of which foreign players are up to 3." ”
The number of people is concise, but there is no explanation of the maximum number of chinese and foreign aides who can sign up for the big list of 50 people, and the number of foreign aides who appear in a single game. In addition, there is no further explanation for the qualification of participation, especially how to understand "relevant associations".
One interpretation is that the City Football League does not allow all foreign active professional footballers to participate, and the "relevant association" under this interpretation can be understood as all relevant member associations under FIFA. Another interpretation is that the City Football League does not allow active foreign professional football players who play for club teams in various leagues in the country to participate, which is, to put it bluntly, it is not allowed to dig the wall of the current professional football club in terms of attracting foreign aid.
Judging from the conditions for the qualification of domestic players in the Draft for Comments, perhaps out of consideration for the protection of existing professional leagues, the second interpretation is more likely, but at the same time, it is not excluded that in order to ensure that domestic players have more opportunities to perform and exercise on this platform, the City Football League does not allow the introduction of high-level foreign players to some extent. In addition, the results of the City Football League are also linked to the National Games, which also conflicts with the introduction of high-level foreign players. Further explanations on how the qualifications of foreign players are determined and whether to set a limit on the cost of reinforcements will need to be further explained by the final version of the competition regulations.
In the "Draft For Comments", there are three statements about the flow of city league players, namely: first, in the period 2022-2025, a player can only represent one city in principle to participate in the city football league; second, after the registration deadline on April 10, 2022, there will be no player exchange window period this season, and players who are transferred to other cities due to further education, work, etc., if they represent new cities, in addition to having work, study and other supporting materials, must hold a written agreement of the original city to agree to participate in the new city. After the review and approval of the General Sports Commission, each team can only transfer 2 players in such situations, and the number of 50 people registered for the big list remains unchanged; third, the transferred players must hold a written consent letter issued by the original unit of ownership, if the transferred player has signed a National Games participation agreement with the relevant province, autonomous region or municipality directly under the Central Government, or has been registered in the National Games registration list, it must also issue a written consent letter from the belonging unit, the National Games participation agreement unit or the registered unit.
It can be seen from the above three provisions that the general direction of the City Football League in terms of player mobility does not, in principle, encourage players to switch frequently between various city teams, and players who want to change city teams must go through layers of approval and obtain the consent of each unit. In the "Letter of Comment", the word "transfer" such as professional football is not used.
In addition to the relevant provisions on player exchanges, the City Football League also has a special policy on the use of young players, "After the start of the league this season, in addition to the 50-person registration list, each team is allowed to introduce up to 10 players under the age of 19 who enter the City Football League team for the first time, and after obtaining the qualification for the competition according to the regulations, they can enter the list of players to participate in the game (players under the age of 16 who are really capable of participating in the game must be approved by the General Sports Competition Committee). Such players transferred to other teams must comply with the provisions of the Supplementary Registration and Registration Changes. ”
According to the Draft for Comments and related documents, the organizer of this new football event is the All-China Sports Federation, the organizer is the relevant city government (sports administrative unit), and the funds for the event also have clear relevant regulations.
When the home-and-away system is adopted, the participating cities are responsible for the costs of the main venue, medical treatment, security, epidemic prevention, television broadcasting, food and accommodation for the team, transportation and so on. In the context of the competition system, the Sports General Competition Committee will allocate funds to the competition area in accordance with the event hosting agreement for competition organization, venue leasing, equipment purchase, related subsidies, etc. It is equivalent to the local responsibility for the team's local expenses, and although the specific responsible unit is not clearly stated, it is foreseeable that the relevant city government as the organizer will cover the bottom line. In the case of the tournament system, the funding will be borne by the Sports Competition Committee.
The qualifications, appointment and selection of relevant competition officials of the China City Football League, such as match supervisors, technical researchers, referees, etc., will be determined by the General Sports Competition Committee. The transportation expenses, accommodation expenses, labor remuneration, etc. of the competition officials shall be paid and paid in accordance with relevant regulations.
Unlike professional league teams that rely solely on investors to operate blood transfusions, the living environment of city football teams has an innate advantage. After all, nowadays, whether it is a Chinese Super League club or a low-level league club, private investors are almost on the verge of decreasing enthusiasm and turning to government support, but the process as a whole is relatively slow. The birth of the city league team means that there is no worry in this regard, whether it is the daily operation of the team or the game funds, there are enough guarantees, and the participating players do not have to worry about the problem of salary arrears.
When it comes to operating expenses, there is actually one point involved, and this is completely different from the recent professional leagues, that is, the naming rules for participating teams. In the city league, the full name of the city team is: city name + club name + title + "team", under the premise of complying with relevant regulations, each team can be increased or decreased according to the actual situation; the team is referred to as: city name + team name, in principle, the length should not exceed 8 words.
The first thing that can be seen is that teams in the City Football League allow sponsors to be named, and teams can publicly call the names of the sponsors. This is quite different from the current "neutral name" of professional leagues. Since last year, the Chinese Football Association has listed the club's neutral name as an entry condition, and all chinese Super League and Chinese League A teams have completed the neutralization of the club within one year, removing the naming agent. Moreover, in the definition of neutral names, the Chinese Football Association has strict regulations, and the name formula of professional clubs is: local domain name + club name + limited liability company (joint stock limited liability company or other), referred to as "local domain name + club name" in the full name. In order to avoid the club playing "edge ball", the neutral name shall not use a pronunciation similar to or similar to the club's shareholder enterprise, actual controller or related party. Of course, the names of established clubs like Shanghai Shenhua and Beijing Guoan have been retained.
From an operational point of view, professional league clubs have lost the fixed income from the title sponsor every year, and the teams of the City Football League can not only reflect the characteristics of the city in the team name, but also obtain certain benefits through the title, which can be used to maintain the operation of the team. From the perspective of corporate investors, it may also happen that in the past, professional clubs could not get the revenue of title advertising, and instead invested funds in the city football league teams that could be named. Of course, the naming of the city football team also has rules, such as only the name of the company or brand, and cannot appear in the category of goods, services or organizational forms.
In the "Notice" in January, it clearly expressed the main purpose of holding the "Sports General Cup" three major city leagues, and the holding of the city football league can help and support Chinese football to expand the football population base to a certain extent, and can also help some areas with poor football resources to accelerate the pace of development. Judging from the enthusiasm for registration, this new event has received support from many local governments.
This is actually related to the incentive policy of the city league.
First of all, the competition will annually award collective awards and individual awards according to the "City Football League Awards Selection Method", including the team ranking award, fair play award and excellent division award of each league, and the individual award is based on the selection of one best coach, best player, best scorer (can be tied), star of hope (19 years old and below), 8 outstanding referees, 12 outstanding assistant referees, etc. according to each of the three leagues.
In addition to the league awards, more importantly, this event will be linked to the National Games. The Draft for Comments points out that the results of the annual City Football League are linked to the final stage of the National Games, and the specific number of qualifications and the methods for obtaining qualifications will be notified separately.
In addition, the results of the city football league teams participating in the final stage of the National Games are counted in the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government. In terms of incentive policies, the City Football League will first be included in the catalogue of events that can award athletes rank titles, subject to the officially announced policies. The relevant medal methods are also subject to the official notice.
In addition, the National Games Football Championship Award Ceremony is scheduled to be held at the closing ceremony, and the mayor of the city that won the National Games championship will lift the championship trophy with the team.