Reporter Wang Wei reported that on April 12, the draw ceremony for the 2024 season of the China Champions League regional competition and the China Champions League club investor meeting were held in Xi'an, Shaanxi. A total of 71 teams from all over the country are divided into 19 groups (including the qualifying stage), and each team will play in 8 regional regions and 3 qualification regions. The qualifying tournament starts on April 27 with 10 teams in three groups, and the first place in each group advances to the regional stage. After the qualifying round, 16 teams will advance to the finals, and the top four teams in the finals will qualify for the 2025 season.
The registration for the 2024 season of the Champions League is very hot, with a total of 75 teams from all over the country signing up for the competition, which was announced before the draw, and finally 71 teams passed the publicity. Since this year's Champions League regional competition is divided into eight divisions, a total of 64 teams participate in the regional competition, so 10 of the 71 teams registered through the announcement will participate in the qualifying round (determined by the scoring system), the Champions League Committee will divide these 10 teams into three groups, the first place in each group will advance to the regional competition, and the other 61 teams will form 64 teams to participate in the regional competition.
This year's Champions League presents several major characteristics.
First of all, the Organizing Committee of the China Champions League is very strict about the qualifications, registration and qualification review of the participating teams, which can be called the implementation of a strict China Champions League access system. For example, if a club that has signed up for the competition has serious violations of rules and disciplines, unfair play behaviors or arrears of remuneration for staff and players in 2023-2024, the Organizing Committee of the China Champions League will disqualify them from participating in the 2024 China Champions League.
At the same time, the Organizing Committee of the China Championship League has formulated the "Detailed Rules for the Evaluation of Registered Clubs in the China Championship League", and set up an evaluation team to evaluate the league, the operation of the club, the local professionalism, and the access to the second division. For clubs that enter the finals of the 2023 China Champions League, priority will be given to the 2024 China Champions League; Overseas specially invited teams are directly allowed to participate in the competition, and other participating clubs will be evaluated and scored, and ranked. Clubs with more than 60 points and the top 64 in the ranking will be allowed to participate in the 2024 Champions League. If there are more than 64 clubs with more than 60 points, the organizing committee will take the form of a qualifying competition to determine the final quota for the clubs that are ranked lower. It is precisely because of the hot registration of the league that this year's China Champions League has determined the mode of qualification.
At the same time, in order to ensure fair competition to the greatest extent, the Organizing Committee of this year's China Champions League has introduced the rules for the extra competition when the key rankings are decided. In the group stage and round-robin competition system, the team results of the same points are compared with key positions such as promotion (including the top two teams in the group stage of the regional stage entering the promotion group, the top two in the promotion group of the regional stage entering the finals, and the top five in the group stage of the finals entering the qualifying round, etc.), the organizing committee of the China Champions League will activate the rules of the play-off and determine the final ranking by arranging additional matches for teams related to the same points.
It is understood that the specific implementation of the play-off rules when the key rankings are decided will be announced by the Organizing Committee of the China Champions League before the final round of the round-robin competition. In the regional competition, the form of the extra match is that on the day after the end of the final round of the round-robin competition, the teams with the same points will kick each other's penalty kicks. In the home-and-away system of the finals, the play-off format is selected after the end of the final round of the round-robin match, and the teams with the same points play for 90 minutes.
This year's China Champions League regional competition is divided into 8 divisions and 16 groups, and the top two teams in each group will enter the regional round-robin with the top two teams in the same division, and the top two teams in the round-robin will advance to the finals. The 16 teams in the finals will be divided into two groups for a single round-robin, followed by qualifying and knockout rounds to determine the rankings, and the top 4 will qualify for the 2025 season.
This year's Champions League regional and finals will be ranked in a similar way to the 2023 season. In the regional competition, a total of 4 teams in the first and second places of the two groups in the same division will form a promotion group, and two rounds of single round-robin matches will be played (the two teams in the same group will no longer play), and the top two teams in the promotion group (only counting the results of the matches between the four teams) will enter the finals, and a total of 16 teams in the eight divisions will advance to the finals.
The first place in the two groups of the finals will be determined by two home and away qualifying matches to determine the first and second places in the Champions League, and the second to fifth places in the two groups of the finals will be cross-eliminated. The two winning teams in the second round of the knockout round will be ranked third and fourth in the Champions League through the comparison of the results of the finals. The exclusionary format for the rest of the rankings is also similar to that of the top four.
Judging from the teams participating in the Champions League this year, Shanghai Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Guangzhou Anwar, Shanghai Orange Orange Saiganda and other teams have strong strength, and former Chinese Super League players Zhang Lu, Li Jianbin, Fan Yunlong and former Shenhua investor Zhu Jun are all expected to appear in the 2024 season of the Champions League. The Gannan 92 United, Yulin Tianjiao, Guangdong Mingtu, Shantou Abstract, Xiong'an Light and other teams will appear in the Champions League for the first time.