According to the timetable announced at the Xianghe meeting on February 7, the Chinese Football Association and the preparatory group of the Chinese Football Federation should issue the "2023 Chinese Football Association Professional Club Access Regulations" on February 10. As the organizers of the event clearly informed the clubs at the meeting, clubs that fail to settle all salary arrears, arrears of wages arising from international arbitration disputes, liquidated damages or compensation, and disciplinary fines will not be able to pass the admission gate of the corresponding league in the new season. It is understood that in order to ensure the stable operation of the league and protect the rights and interests of all relevant parties in the league, including sponsors, the Chinese Super League will ensure the participation scale of at least 16 teams in the new season.
At the Xianghe meeting on the 7th, the preparatory group of the Chinese Football Federation informed the heads of the three clubs of the Chinese Super League, China A and China B of the policy (supplement, adjustment) plan of professional leagues at all levels in the new season, and interpreted it. Although the relevant content must be discussed by the participants before it can be finally implemented into an implementation decision, from the statements of the event organizers, there is no room for negotiation on the strict implementation of the access regulations for clubs at all levels of the league in the new season. In other words, clubs at all levels must complete the access training and formally submit the access materials on February 13. On February 20, the results of the preliminary review of the first batch of clubs paid (all arrears of wages and contract disputes, compensation, etc.) will be announced for a period of 7 days.
March 3 is the deadline for clubs to submit access materials. In other words, clubs that fail to submit access materials within the deadline will automatically give up their access to the corresponding league in the new season, which is equivalent to not being able to participate in the professional league in the new season.
The meeting also made it clear that the access work will be completed on March 20, and the event organizers will announce the access list. It should be noted that in addition to paying off the arrears of wages, the club must also pay all the outstanding disciplinary fines and the arrears of wages involved in contract disputes (including international arbitration) and their liquidated damages or compensation before completing the admission procedures, otherwise it will not be able to pass the access barrier.
It is worth noting that at the meeting on the 7th, the preparatory team of the Chinese Football Federation only roughly gave the approximate time period for the start of the new season of the third-level professional league, without specifying the specific start time, and the confirmation of the closing time point naturally cannot be confirmed for the time being. The main reason for this situation is that the access work of all levels of leagues has not yet been completed, and the organizers of the event cannot confirm the final number of participants at all levels, that is, the scale of the event, before the deadline for the submission of access materials.
Prior to this, the Chinese Football Association and the preparatory group of the Chinese Football Federation had initially planned that the new season of the Chinese Super League would start as early as April 14 to 16, and as for the closing time, two time nodes were preset, in November and December. As for how to choose, it depends on whether the Chinese Super League can maintain the participation scale of 18 teams.
In fact, before the Xianghe meeting, there were rumors in the domestic football industry that the Shenzhen Club of the Chinese Super League and the Guangzhou City Club had reached a critical moment of "life and death" due to various objective factors and difficulties, and the clubs registered on the crisis list were said to be more than these two clubs. If more than two Chinese Super League clubs (including promoted clubs) cannot meet the entry conditions, the Chinese Super League may face the possibility of further shrinkage in size in the new season. In addition, there were rumors before the meeting that if a Chinese Super League club is unable to qualify, the tournament organizers will in principle not replace other teams in the Super League. It is reported that some of the lower-level clubs attending the meeting asked the representatives of the tournament organizers whether the club had the possibility of retroactive promotion, and received a negative answer. This means that the tournament organizers will determine the size of the leagues at all levels in the new season based on the principle of "rather lack than abuse".
It is reported that up to now, the organizers of the event still adhere to the attitude of "at least 16 teams in the Chinese Super League in the new season", and the specific reasons are not difficult to understand. On the one hand, since the establishment of the Chinese Super League in the 2004 season, it has had many bumps along the way, and it is not easy to develop to the scale of 18 teams, and if the scale is greatly reduced after just reaching 18 teams after only one season, it may damage the image of the league. The AFC has mandatory quantitative requirements for the national (regional) league rounds of each member association. If there are too few teams in the league, the use of a double round-robin system of home and away will lead to a decrease in the overall number of rounds, and an increase in the number of round-robin matches may affect fair play due to the uneven number of home and away games.
It is also worth noting that the Chinese Super League, as a professional league, has strict commercial attributes. In addition to meeting the wishes and enthusiasm of fans, the organizer must also give back to the rights and interests of the commercial partners of the event. In fact, in recent seasons, due to objective factors, the commercial income of the Chinese Super League has decreased significantly, and the amount of some sponsorship cooperation has also decreased to varying degrees. Therefore, while working with clubs to tide over the difficulties, event organizers should also restore the confidence of various business partners to invest in local professional football by improving the scale of the league, optimizing the level of league competition, and enhancing the credibility and brand appeal of the league. Therefore, it is very important for the league to maintain a stable size and sufficient number of matches.
At present, the preparatory group of the Chinese Football Federation has determined that the replacement principles for professional leagues at all levels in the new season are: first, "meet the requirements of the access standards" - that is, the club has submitted an application for access or a supplementary application for the corresponding league, and has been reviewed by the Chinese Football Association and has reached the access standards of the corresponding league.
Second, meet the requirements of competitive performance: In order to ensure the overall competitive level of the league, the competitive performance requirements of the replacement club will be strictly defined. In the case of "relegation and relegation", the number of clubs eligible for relegation is limited to the three clubs that were originally relegated and the clubs that finished fourth to sixth in the lower league last season, and so on.
The principle also makes it clear that consecutive relegated clubs will not be allowed to make up consecutive successive relegations. If a club has been relegated to the league in the first year and returned to the original league according to the relevant principles; If they are still relegated in the following year, they are not allowed to continue to be substituted, and the qualifications are obtained by other clubs in descending order.
The provisions clarify the order of replacement. Specifically, if a club in the league of the previous season (except those that have been relegated) loses the qualification for the league due to failure to meet the access requirements and there is a vacancy, priority will be given to the clubs that have been relegated in the league of the previous season and meet the access requirements in order of league results in the previous season; If the club in this level cannot be filled, the club that meets the entry criteria in the lower league of the previous season will be replaced in order of league results of the previous season.
If a club in the lower league of the previous season has been promoted, but there is a vacancy due to the loss of access due to reasons such as not meeting the access requirements of the upper league, etc., priority will be given to the clubs in the lower league of the previous season who meet the entry criteria requirements in order of the league results of the previous season; If the lower division clubs cannot make up the amount, the clubs that have been relegated in the original division league of the previous season and meet the admission requirements will be replaced in order of the league results of the previous season; The above order of regression does not include consecutive by-back clubs.
The regulations also make it clear that qualification for professional leagues at all levels can only be made between two consecutive seasons.
Guo Bingyan, head of the competition section of the preparatory group of the Chinese Football Federation, said: "The league's substitution is not an unlimited substitution. This work cannot be dealt with. Consecutive relegated clubs are not allowed to be relegated. ”
Text/Beiqing Sports Xiao Zhao
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