Affected by the epidemic, the selection of the first stage of the Chinese Super League in the new season has faced great difficulties. Since some candidate cities, including Wuhan City, have confirmed that they cannot host large-scale professional football events in the short term, and the recent selection of candidate cities is very limited, the Chinese Football Association and the China Football Federation Preparatory Group have considered arranging some of the group events of the Chinese Super League in the new season in a closed base like Kunming Haigeng Base. Due to the tight preparation time and heavy tasks, the Chinese Super League is no longer possible to start this month, and the earliest start time may be pushed to mid-May.
In accordance with the relevant requirements put forward at the professional league work conference on April 3, clubs that have passed the admission review of the Chinese Super League, The Chinese First Division and the Chinese Second Division in the new season should submit a confirmation letter of participation by the last weekend at the latest. It is understood that except for a few clubs that confirmed that they could not participate or suspended the "submission of the form" for any reason, the vast majority of other clubs submitted a confirmation letter as agreed. Next, the Preparatory Group of the Chinese Football Association and the China Football Federation will strictly review the confirmation letters submitted by the clubs, especially carefully approve the details of the wage arrears of the clubs, the proportion and amount of the 3 time points to confirm the settlement of the arrears of wages, and the official seals stamped by the relevant departments.
Compared with the confirmation letter for participation, the selection of the first stage of the Chinese Super League and the Chinese League A is the most urgent problem to be solved by the Preparatory Group of the Chinese Football Association and the China Football Federation. Last week, the inspection team specially dispatched by the Preparatory Group of the China Football Federation went to Hangzhou City and Meizhou City to inspect the sites. Other functional departments of the preparatory team also used the last weekend to work overtime to communicate with the relevant parties in the cities in the candidate areas about the competition.
However, some of the candidate cities that were expected to host the Chinese Super League were severely affected by the situation of epidemic prevention in their respective regions (cities), and showed the attitude of the Chinese Football Association and the China Football Federation Preparatory Group that they could not host professional league events in the short term. For example, Wuhan City, which has two Chinese Super League teams, has confirmed that it cannot host the first stage of the Chinese Super League. Other cities that were close to hosting the Chinese Super League competition also declined the invitation to host the competition for similar reasons.
Just as the so-called "plan can't catch up with the changes", a series of sudden changes have added workload and difficulty to the work of the event organizers. Since the hosting of high-level professional football events such as the Chinese Super League needs to strictly meet the standards in terms of venue conditions and reception capacity, and now it is getting closer and closer to the start time of the league plan, the Chinese Super League candidate areas that can be selected by the Chinese Football Association and the China Football Federation Preparatory Group have been very limited, and in the words of the relevant people in the working group, "there is almost no room for choice in the (Chinese Super League) division." ”
It is understood that the Meizhou Division, which has been inspected, has so far maintained a positive attitude towards hosting the Chinese Super League competition. It is reported that some of the local alternative competition venues have begun to start the field rectification project. However, in the context of the confirmation of the centralized system of group competitions in the first stage of the competition, at least 3 divisions need to be implemented in the early stage of the Chinese Super League. It is precisely because of the tight working time and heavy tasks in the selection of the division that the Chinese Football Association and the China Football Federation have considered arranging some of the group events in the first stage of the Chinese Super League in individual football training bases with good venues and closed conditions. For example, the Kunming Haigeng base has become an important candidate target.
It is worth noting that on April 10, the new season of the Women's League A kicked off at Haigeng Base. Prior to this, the Women's Super League has also opened the curtain at the Mission Hills Base in Haikou, which undertakes the national football team, the U23 national football team, and the 2003 age group U19 national youth men's football team. In the context of the epidemic, such an arrangement is conducive to the safe holding of various events. In addition, since the event cannot be restored to the home and away system for the time being to meet the needs of fans to watch the game, such arrangements can also reduce the risk of labor and infection with the new crown virus for all parties, including event organizers and clubs, while saving economic costs.
It has to be said that arranging professional football matches in the base is not the intention or the best policy of the event organizers. Due to the expansion of the Chinese Super League to 18 teams in the new season, the total number of games in the whole season is 34 rounds, so from the perspective of ensuring the integrity of the schedule and ensuring the quality of the league competition, playing a full season of competition is undoubtedly expected. The Chinese Football Association and the China Football Federation Preparatory Group are also in order to give the Chinese Super League "quality and quantity" to continuously combine the changes in actual conditions and adjust the competition plan. The organizers of the event also fully understand that individual candidate areas are unable to run the competition due to force majeure factors. It is reported that the Preparatory Group of the Chinese Football Association and the China Football Federation has contacted individual cities that have hosted the Chinese Super League conference system in the past two days to seek the feasibility of running the competition.
It should be noted that even if some of the group events in the first stage of the Chinese Super League are finally arranged in the football base, then the Chinese Football Association and the China Football Federation will also select the bases with the highest quality conditions in each base, that is to say, the bases that meet or are closest to the conditions of the Chinese Super League competition, reception, broadcasting and so on. According to the plan, the first stage of the Women's League Will end on the 25th of this month. From this point of view, if the Haigeng base finally takes over the Chinese Super League competition, then it will also need to go through a series of preparations before the start of the match. In addition, the Preparatory Group of the Chinese Football Association and the China Football Federation has recently stepped up communication with other candidate cities to organize the games, and the specific work will take time. This means that the start of the new season of the Chinese Super League this month is no longer possible. As for whether the tournament can start in early May, there are also doubts. Tournament organizers don't even rule out the possibility of pushing the tournament to mid-May. And because the new international matchday cycle of the national team will appear from May 30 to June 14. Therefore, once the start date of the Chinese Super League is postponed, it will have a knock-on impact on the operation of all stages of the season.
Text/Beiqing Sports Xiao Zhao