Reporter Jia Yanfeng reported that according to the original plan of the Chinese Football Association and the Preparatory Group of the Chinese Football Federation, the 2022 season of the Chinese Super League will start on April 23, the first to promote the home and away system. However, on March 23, a month countdown, the reporter learned that due to the impact of the epidemic, the first stage of the new season of the Chinese Super League is likely to continue to use the tournament system to start.
After entering March, the work of the league organizers (the Chinese Football Association and the Preparatory Group of the China Football Federation) has actually entered a countdown state, but the recurrence of the epidemic has made the Chinese Super League, which has just hoped to restore the home and away system, fall into a new dilemma. On the 23rd, the reporter learned from the Chinese Football Association and the Preparatory Group of the China Football Federation that despite the severe epidemic situation, all the plans to ensure the normal start of the Chinese Super League are still trying to advance.
At present, the league organizers have "two guarantees": one is to ensure that the Chinese Super League starts on April 23 as scheduled; second, although according to the current situation, the possibility of playing the first stage of the Chinese Super League in the new season has become increasingly large, as long as the situation allows, the subsequent leagues will still strive to restore the home-and-away system.
This year, the preparation team of the Chinese Football Federation is still responsible for the design and arrangement of the Chinese Super League schedule. At the end of last season, the Preparatory Group of the China Football Federation held a seminar with the clubs on the new season schedule, and after obtaining the consent of the vast majority of clubs, the new season league plan with the restoration of the home-and-away system as the main and the combination of the incidental conference system and the home-and-away system was submitted for approval, and it has also received preliminary approvals, but the implementation of the new schedule should be carried out according to the actual situation under the guidance of the national epidemic prevention policy, and the plan must be submitted for approval again before the final implementation.
There are currently 18 teams in the Chinese Super League, which are divided into 15 cities. Under the influence of the epidemic, the restoration of the home-and-away system itself is a very challenging task, but the first two seasons have implemented the conference system, which has brought a series of impacts on the fans' feelings, the quality of the game, and the interests of sponsors, etc. From the perspective of industry development prospects and professional football laws, the early restoration of the home-and-away system is an important and imperative event, the voice of the majority of fans, and the strong demand of many clubs.
In fact, before the recurrence of the epidemic, some teams had already obtained the relevant approval documents for the opening of the home stadium and passed them to the preparatory team of the China Football Federation, but the sudden change of the epidemic made the format arrangement of the new season face uncertainty.
If the Chinese Super League in the new season has to implement the tournament system again, then the schedule arrangement, whether it is divided into divisions/groups, or the way of playing, will basically follow the plan of last year's Chinese League One. Last season's 18 participating teams in the Chinese League A were divided into three divisions/groups, each group has 6 teams, and the 34 rounds of the league throughout the year are divided into 4 stages, 10 rounds + 8 rounds + 8 rounds + 8 rounds, after each stage, 4 teams from each division are transferred to another division according to the rules, and there is a period of one to two weeks between each stage.
According to this format, then the entire season of the Chinese Super League can be played in only three different cities. If the Chinese Super League operates according to this plan, because there is last season's experience in the operation of the Chinese League A for reference, it can also be carried out smoothly, after all, the overall operation of the Chinese League A last season has been unanimously praised by all parties.
In the plan of the preparatory group of the Chinese Football Federation, each interval of this year's league has two functions, on the one hand, to restore and recuperate the teams, on the other hand, in case there are teams and divisions that have to postpone some games due to the impact of the epidemic, then the corresponding interval period will be used to make up for the game.
In addition, if the 2022 season of the Chinese Super League has to run according to such a format, then the 2022 season of the Chinese League A will most likely run according to last year's format.
At present, this wave of epidemic involves a wide range, and the situation in the cities where some Chinese Super League and Chinese League A teams are located is even very serious, so if the tournament system is implemented again this year, how will the division be selected and determined? How will these teams from the affected cities reach the division in the future? In these aspects, the accumulation of experience in the first two seasons has enabled the Football Association and the Preparatory Team of the China Football Federation to master a set of strict operation procedures.
In addition, last season during the league break, in fact, there have been some teams in the city where the outbreak occurred, resulting in abnormal itinerary codes of team members, if according to normal circumstances, these players, coaches and staff can not enter the city of the division, but because the Football Association, the Preparatory Group of the Chinese Football Federation and the government departments of the cities belonging to the division work together, these emergencies have been properly handled.
Of course, this year will also encounter new problems and new tests, such as reception hotels.
In previous years, because the conference system was determined early in the morning, and a complete season was also determined early on, so for the reception hotel in the city where the division is located, the relevant parties have long been booked, and also negotiated the check-in issue during the entire league, that is, the reception time of the hotel side is relatively fixed, but this year in this link is different, on the one hand, the scheduled time is not as early as in previous years, on the other hand, if the epidemic situation improves when the league is carried out, the home and away system can be restored. What about the reception hotel? At present, this issue has been discussed in an important position by the league organization department.
It is understood that the league organizers have also contacted some domestic cities in advance according to the original plan, if you want to carry out the tournament system, at present, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Hangzhou, Xi'an and other cities have become candidate cities, these candidate cities, like Guangzhou, Wuhan has previously hosted the competition system, the experience of running the tournament has been relatively mature.
According to the original home-and-away system plan, the first stage of the Chinese Super League is 10 rounds, if it is changed to the tournament system, the first stage of the game will also be fine-tuned, may play 8 rounds first, play until the beginning of June, ushering in the first intermittent period. At that time, if the home and away games can be restored, then the next 26 rounds will be home-and-away system.