Affected by the epidemic, the selection of the first stage of the Chinese Super League in the new season is facing huge difficulties. Due to the fact that some candidate cities with excellent conditions for hosting competitions, including Wuhan, have confirmed that they will not be able to host large-scale professional football events in the short term, there are very few candidate cities to choose from in the near future. Some group matches of the Chinese Super League during the season are arranged in closed bases like Kunming Haigeng Base. Due to the tight preparation time and heavy tasks, it is impossible for the Chinese Super League to start within this month, and the earliest specific start time may be pushed to mid-May.
According to the relevant requirements put forward by the professional league working meeting on April 3, the clubs that have passed the admission review of the Chinese Super League, Chinese League One and Chinese League Two in the new season should submit their participation confirmation letters by the last weekend at the latest. It is understood that, except for individual clubs who confirmed that they could not participate in the competition or postponed the “submission of forms” for some reason, most of the other clubs submitted confirmation letters as scheduled. Next, the Chinese Football Association and the preparatory team of the Chinese Football Federation will strictly review the confirmation letters submitted by the clubs, especially carefully reviewing the details of the arrears of the clubs, confirming the proportion and amount of the arrears at three time points, and adding Covered official seal and other information.
Compared with the collection of confirmation letters, the selection of the first stage of the Chinese Super League and the Chinese League is the most urgent problem to be solved by the Chinese Football Association and the Chinese Football Federation. Last week, the inspection team specially dispatched by the preparatory group of the Chinese Football Federation went to Hangzhou and Meizhou to inspect the venues. All other functional departments of the preparatory group also used the time last weekend to work overtime to communicate with all relevant parties in the candidate competition area cities.
However, some candidate cities that were originally expected to host the Chinese Super League were severely affected by the epidemic prevention work in the region (cities), and they indicated to the Chinese Football Association and the Chinese Football Federation preparatory team that they would not be able to host professional league events in the short term. For example, Wuhan City, which has excellent conditions for hosting matches such as venues and has two Chinese Super League teams, has confirmed that it cannot host the first stage of the Chinese Super League. Other cities that were close to hosting Chinese Super League competitions also declined the invitation to host the competition for similar reasons.
As the so-called “plans can’t keep up with changes”, a series of sudden changes have added workload and difficulty to the work of the event organizers. Since the hosting of high-level professional football events such as the Chinese Super League requires strict compliance with venue conditions, reception capacity, etc., and it is getting closer and closer to the planned start of the league, the Chinese Super League candidates can be selected by the Chinese Football Association and the Chinese Football Federation preparatory team. The competition area is already very limited. In the words of a relevant person in the working group, “There is almost no room for selection of the (Chinese Super League) competition area.”
It is understood that the Meizhou Division, which has been inspected, has so far maintained a positive attitude towards hosting the Chinese Super League. It is reported that some local alternative competition venues have started the venue rectification project. However, in the context of the first stage of the competition confirming that the group competition will be centralized,In the early stage of the Chinese Super League, at least 3 divisions need to be implemented. It is precisely because of the tight schedule and heavy tasks in the selection of the competition area that the Chinese Football Association and the Chinese Football Federation have considered arranging some group matches in the first stage of the Chinese Super League to be held in individual football training bases with good venues and closed conditions. For example, the Kunming Haigeng Base has become an important candidate for the competition.
It is worth noting that on April 10, the new season of the Women’s League One kicked off at the Haigeng Base. Before that, the Women’s Super League has also started the battle at the Mission Hills Base in Haikou, which undertakes the national football team, the U23 national football team and the 2003 U19 national youth football team. In the context of the epidemic, such an arrangement is beneficial to the safe holding of various events. In addition, since the home and away game system cannot be resumed for the time being to meet the needs of fans to go to the game, such an arrangement can also reduce the risk of fatigue and infection of the new crown virus for all parties including the event organizer and club, while saving economic costs. .
It has to be said that it is not the original intention or the best policy of the event organizers to arrange professional football matches in the base. Due to the expansion of the Chinese Super League to 18 teams in the new season, and a total of 34 rounds of games in the whole season, from the perspective of ensuring the integrity of the schedule and the quality of league competition, it is undoubtedly expected to play the full season. The Chinese Football Association and the preparatory team of the Chinese Football Federation also adjusted the competition plan in order to “guarantee the quality and quantity” of the Chinese Super League. The organizer of the event also fully understands that individual candidate competition areas cannot hold the competition due to force majeure factors. It is reported that the Chinese Football Association and the preparatory team of the Chinese Football Federation have contacted individual cities that have hosted Chinese Super League competitions in the past two days to seek the feasibility of hosting competitions.
It should be noted that even if some of the competitions in the first stage of the Chinese Super League are finally arranged in the football bases, the Chinese Football Association and the Chinese Football Federation will select the relatively best conditions in each base, that is to say, they meet or are closest to the Chinese Super League. Competition, reception, broadcast and other conditions of the base to host the competition. According to the plan, the first stage of the Women’s League will end on the 25th of this month. From this point of view, if the Haigeng Base eventually takes over the Chinese Super League game, it will also need to go through a series of preparations before the game starts. In addition, the Chinese Football Association and the preparatory team of the Chinese Football Federation have recently been stepping up communication with other candidate cities in the competition area, and the specific work will take time. This means that it is impossible for the new season of the Chinese Super League to start within this month. There are also doubts as to whether it can start in early May. The organizers of the event did not even rule out the possibility of pushing the game to mid-May. And because the new period of the national team international competition day cycle will appear from May 30 to June 14. Therefore, once the start date of the Chinese Super League is postponed, it will have a cascading impact on the operation of events at all stages of the season.
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Xiao XunReturn to Sohu, see more
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