News from this newspaper (Reporter Li Li) After finishing the Qatar World Preliminary Asian Top 12 and the "Dubai Cup" Invitational Tournament, the national football team and the U23 national football team should have returned to China immediately.
However, due to the prevention and control of the epidemic, the two teams had to postpone their return to China.
It is reported that the two teams can leave for China as early as April 3.
After returning to China, the two teams will also undergo 14+7 isolation.
In this way, the 2022 Chinese Super League season originally planned to start on April 23 will definitely be postponed.
In addition, the restoration of the home and away game system previously planned by the Chinese Football Association does not seem to be able to proceed, and the new season will still be started in the form of a game system.
In this westward expedition, the national football team and the U23 national football team set off together on a chartered flight.
The original plan was for the national football team to return to Dubai from Muscat after the game, and then the two teams would charter a flight to return to China on March 31.
In this way, the internationals will be able to return to the team normally on April 21, and the league will start on April 23.
However, with the postponement of the return date of the international players, the Chinese Football Association had to readjust the start date of the league.
The reason why the league needs to start as soon as possible is because the Chinese Super League has expanded to 18 participating teams this year, and the number of matches has increased.
And compared with the seasons that ended up shrinking in the past two years, the Football Association's plan this year is to play all leagues in a double cycle.
If the overall time is compressed, it means that the interval between each round will be shortened, which will be detrimental to the normal progress of the entire league.
In addition, affected by the current epidemic situation, the first stage of the league will most likely still adopt the tournament system.
Considering that there are 18 participating teams in the league, the preliminary plan requires three cities as competition venues, with 6 participating teams in each city.