The start of the Chinese Super League will also be announced on April 28 at the earliest, and the final teams and divisions will be announced on April 11

Written by Li Jianli

The new season of the Chinese Super League has announced the list of 18 clubs, although the league start date has not been finalized, but the pace of the new season is getting closer and closer. From the full recovery of home and away to the recurrence of the epidemic, more work has been added to the preparatory team of the Chinese Football Association and the China Football Federation, and in order to ensure the start of the new season, they need to pay more energy and effort than usual.

Not only that, but the brand value of the Chinese Super League is being challenged as never before. The damage of the 2-year conference system to the image of the league is obvious, the quality of the game has declined, the fans are far away from the stadium, the high-level foreign aid and foreign teachers have left, the schedule is changed at will, the salary arrears and other issues have been questioned by the outside world, after the two-year conference system, how can these problems be solved in the new season? These will be the problems that league organizers need to focus on solving, which is also the focus of efforts to restore the image of the Chinese Super League.

There is no doubt that the new season of the Chinese Super League will continue to be carried out under the shadow of the epidemic, under the premise of ensuring the safety of epidemic prevention, once there is an opportunity, the Preparatory Group of the China Football Federation and the Chinese Football Association will continue to push for the resumption of home and away games. The restoration of home and away is, on the one hand, the voice of various clubs, local football associations and fans, on the other hand, it is also an important means to stop the continuous decline of the league image in the past two years.

The league started, and it was difficult to overcome the difficulties together

After the end of the 2021 season of the Chinese Super League, when preparing for the league of the new season, the goal established by the Chinese Football Association and the China Football Federation is to fully restore the home and away games, and it has been proved that the restoration of the home and away games is also the people's desire, and all the research has received good feedback. However, there was no end to the recurrence of the epidemic, and finally established that the first stage of the new season was dominated by the tournament system.

In the previously announced plan, the 8+8+8+10 league plan has been widely recognized, which is also because the league organizers consider that the last three stages or the last two stages will have the possibility of restoring home and away, such a plan is more suitable for the tournament system and the switch between home and away. Once the epidemic eases slightly, the hope of resuming home and away in the second half of the year will increase significantly.

In fact, the Chinese Football Federation has also made sufficient preparations when considering the resumption of home and away games in the league in the new season. Different from the past, this year's home and away recovery is more special, according to reports, the new season's plan is more considered is the "home and away under the epidemic prevention and control", and the China Football Federation will focus more on how to design the "home and away under the epidemic prevention and control", such as the "bubble" management in this state, nucleic acid testing, etc.

This set of nearly 100 pages of epidemic prevention and control plans has been solicited with the expert group and the Health Commission, and has been widely recognized. If home and away can be restored in the second half of the year, this plan can be put into use.

However, in the league plan that has been determined, the first stage will definitely start in the form of a tournament system. Since the national team and the U23 national football team have only recently returned to China for quarantine, the start of the new season of the Chinese Super League will not be as early as April 28, but it is likely to be postponed, ideally around May Day. Since the two teams of Shanghai Shenhua and Shanghai Haigang are in the epidemic area, the league organizers will also coordinate and communicate with the two clubs.

The tournament format area that has not been announced for a long time has not been announced due to the epidemic, and the Chinese Football Association and the China Football Federation have selected 3-4 places for inspection, waiting for the final reply letter from the local government. In fact, the Chinese Football Association is also waiting for the "participation confirmation notice" reply of the clubs, although the Chinese Football Association has announced the list of league admissions, but before April 8, the return letter of the clubs means that they will participate in the league in the new season. It is understood that on April 11, the Chinese Football Association will announce the final results of the participating teams and the competition system.

The Chinese Super League in the new season will have 18 participating teams for the first time, compared with the previous two seasons that have not played 30 rounds, the 2022 Chinese Super League will definitely play all 34 rounds and 306 games, which is more than the previous 240 games. Whether it is from manpower or all aspects of investment will be more complex and difficult than ever, in the context of repeated epidemics, league organizers need to face more challenges.

Solve the problem and restore the image

In the past two seasons, the Chinese Super League has been affected by factors such as the epidemic and wage arrears, the brand image of the league has dropped significantly, and the attention of fans has been decreasing, and there are many problems. The Chinese Football Association and the Preparatory Group of the China Football Federation are also focusing on solving these problems in the preparations for the new season.

The first is the lack of wages, more than half of the teams in the Chinese Super League have the problem of wage arrears, in response to this problem, the Chinese Football Association and the China Football Federation have introduced relevant plans, and the unpaid wages of the clubs in the 2021 season and before are in principle to be resolved before December 31, 2022 season.

During the period, it will be resolved in batches at three time points, and no less than 30% of the wage arrears will need to be resolved before July 31, 2022, and not less than 70% of the wage arrears will need to be resolved before October 31, 2022, and all the wage arrears will need to be resolved before December 31, 2022. The plan stipulates that if all Chinese Super League clubs cannot solve all unpaid wages before December 31, 2022, the clubs need to reach an agreement with all those who have been owed wages and submit them to the Chinese Football Association for the record before April 8.

The plan also stipulates corresponding penalties: before the three time nodes for repaying the arrears of wages, before July 31, 2022, clubs that have not repaid not less than 30% of the previous arrears of wages will be prohibited from registering new players at the secondary transfer window and deducting 3 points from the league points; before October 31, 2022, clubs that have not repaid 70% of the pre-70% of the 2021 season will be deducted 6 league points; clubs that do not resolve all the arrears of wages before December 31, 2022 will be punished with relegation or admission penalties.

If there is a new fact of wage arrears in 2022, the club will deduct the 2023 season points, relegate or cancel its admission qualification as appropriate, and the club that has reached an agreement with the unpaid person will be punished according to the reference to the above. In addition, the Chinese Football Association and the China Football Federation will also pay attention to the club's share reform and maintain communication with relevant departments.

Another key point of the China Football Federation Preparatory Group in preparing for the new season is to strictly prevent fake gambling black, with the sharp reduction of player salary range in recent years, fake gambling black may once again corrode the football circle, such a situation once appears, the blow to the league is undoubtedly huge. The Ministry of Public Security and the General Administration of Sport have issued documents to combat gambling and match-fixing, and the China Football Federation will introduce relevant measures based on these documents.

The development of the league is inseparable from the fans, in the past few seasons, the Chinese Super League has lost too much fan attention, in the preparation of the new season of the league, the Chinese Football Association and the China Football Federation Preparatory Group hope to have more fans to pay attention, so in the event brand promotion, how to better attract fans back to become a key task. The 2022 season of the Chinese Super League will add one or two copyright platforms, increase copyright revenue at the same time, reach more people.

Facing the upcoming new season, a FA person said. "If you work hard in a down-to-earth manner, you will definitely be able to do a good job and go all out to organize and prepare for the new season." The difficulties and difficulties of the Chinese Super League require the joint efforts of all sectors of society.