China Basketball League (CBA) Paves Way For Other Competitions

Text by: David Kalfa Follow

The Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) has announced that it will resume operations on June 20, after five months of shutdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The CBA will therefore be the first professional sports competition to restart in China, since the start of the coronavirus crisis.

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It is therefore through basketball that professional collective sport will restart in China. While the local football championship (Chinese Super League) has delayed announcing its return, that of basketball (CBA) confirmed on June 4, 2020 its recovery. The CBA, which stopped in the middle of the regular season at the end of January, has set a date for its "comeback": June 20. And this with the clear approval of the local authorities, she assured.

Yao Ming, the boss of the league, expressed his satisfaction, even if he did not declare himself relieved. "  It's just the beginning. We have faced a lot of uncertainty this year, things beyond our knowledge. We must take all factors into consideration,  "said the former Chinese basketball superstar and former NBA player, to the Xinhua news agency.

In camera matches organized in two cities

This is why, in order to limit the risks of contagion, the 20 CBA teams will be grouped in two groups of 10. All the matches of the first group will be played in Qingdao (East of the country) and all those of the second in Dongguan ( South). Meetings that should be held behind closed doors. In short, a device that greatly resembles that which the North American Basketball League (NBA) intends to set up , with games that will take place without spectators in Florida.

A strict health protocol must also be observed, despite these already exceptional conditions. "  People have become familiar with the specifics of measures to fight the virus such as wearing masks or taking the temperature ," added Yao Ming. We hope that all of this will be traceable and reproducible  . ”

Management of foreign players

The Chinese Basketball Association hoped to resume operations in April. But she had to give up in the face of the gravity of the Covid-19 pandemic. Over time, a final halt to the 2019-2020 fiscal year - started on October 26 and initially supposed to end on May 12 - was not excluded. A particularly delicate situation for the fifty or so foreign players in the championship, mainly Americans. According to several international media, the CBA even forced these players to remain at the disposal of the clubs, despite the very uncertain context in China and the restrictions on travel to the country.

Many of them should also not be able to be present at the resumption, in particular because Chinese airlines are now banned in the United States. The CBA has assured, however, that its rules on the quota of foreigners per match will be adjusted so that the most "international" clubs are not penalized.

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