China News Service Client Beijing, July 2 (Bian Liqun) On the first day of the second half of 2020, the Chinese Football Association announced that the new season of the Chinese Super League will start on July 25. After nearly half a year of waiting, this news was hard-won. Whether it is a fan or a practitioner, the dangling heart can finally be put down; but in the face of the new season more than 20 days later, there is always a series of question marks lingering in the heart.
Chinese Football Association announcement screenshot
How is the latest season in history?
According to previous plans, the Chinese Super League should have started on February 22, which is also one of the earlier dates for the Chinese football top league, but because of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the new season has been delayed.
With the progress of time, the start date of the Chinese Super League has been rumored from mid-April and early May to the end of July. Fortunately, with the improvement of the domestic epidemic situation, the wait for nearly half a year has finally ushered in the result. This is the latest season since the professionalization of Chinese football will start in 3 weeks.
This season, only Shanghai Superport and Beijing Guoan have made appearances in the AFC Champions League. Data Map: Wang Ziming celebrates scoring a goal in the game. Image source: Osports All Sports Pictures
However, in the announcement issued by the Football Association on the 1st, apart from the start date of July 25 and the two divisions of Dalian and Suzhou, it did not disclose too much specific rules such as the system and schedule. So how to play in the new season is still unknown.
As early as May, Chen Xuyuan, the president of the Chinese Football Association, responded to the focus of the start of the new season's league in a television interview. It was at that time that the plan for the Chinese Super League group game officially surfaced.
In this unprecedented Super League system, 16 teams will be divided into two groups for two stages of competition. After the first stage, it will be divided into a championship group and a relegation group to decide the champion team, AFC qualification and relegation team.
According to what was said at the time, the first stage will be a cross-loop competition, and the second stage will be a knockout. Under this special format, the Super League this season is destined to be very different from the past. However, the specific differences are still waiting for the detailed rules to be announced by the Chinese Football Association.
Data Map: Football Association Chairman Chen Xuyuan. Photo courtesy of the Chinese Football Association
Compared to CBA, the Super League is more complicated?
It is worth mentioning that at the beginning of last month, the Chinese Basketball Association announced that the CBA league will be re-matched on June 20. So far, it has successfully conducted more than ten match-day contests. Now, whether it is the official announcement node or the official rematch node, it is one month faster than the Chinese Football Association.
It is reported that the two associations submitted the preliminaries to the superior department together, but the result is that the plan for the Super League to start the game needs to be further modified, and the CBA will start the game as expected. Therefore, in comparison with the CBA, the "late" Super League looks very passive, and the fans who are eagerly anticipating question from time to time.
In the previous Beijing Guoan public training class, the coach abroad, Genesio, was interviewed by the media through a video call. Group photo by Bian Li
Objectively speaking, in this special season under the epidemic situation, everything is given priority to epidemic prevention. In an eleven-a-side football game, the number of participants involved is much larger than in a basketball game. Under greater pressure for epidemic prevention, the epidemic prevention plan for the Chinese Super League is more complicated.
Moreover, in terms of playing field factors, the lawn used in football games is also difficult to meet the huge pressure caused by continuous intensive events. The stadium, which has further increased the requirements of the venue hosting the competition area.
Fortunately, the venue conditions in Dalian and Suzhou are sufficient to host the regional system. According to previous reports, the two cities will each provide three competition courts and multiple training grounds for the eight teams in the competition area to compete and train.
Information figure: On the evening of December 7, 2019, the annual award ceremony of the Chinese Super League was held in Shanghai, and the Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao team won the Chinese Super League Championship Award. Photo by Zhang Hengwei
The new season is imminent, not much time to prepare?
It has been 7 months since the end of the season in early December last year. This unprecedented long gap period has caused great problems for the Chinese Super League teams. Because of the epidemic, foreign aid and foreign teachers of some teams are still staying abroad, and the systematic preparation of the team has also been greatly affected.
If there is still no return at the start of the game, this adverse effect may be further expanded. Excluding the 14 days of isolation after returning from abroad, the time for foreign aid and foreign teachers who have not yet returned is less than 20 days, which is very urgent.
There are also 16 Chinese Super League teams that are equally urgent. After the long preparation period, whether the player's state can be quickly switched to the game state, whether he can seize the last period and run the lineup well, and respond well to this special season will greatly determine the team's fate this season. . (Finish)