Reporter Han Bing reports With the 2023/24 season ending, the championship will enter a new era in the second half of the year. The Asian Championships Elite League, whose competition system, teams, number of foreign aid and bonus have all undergone tremendous changes, will allow powerful Japanese and Korean teams and seasonally synchronized teams in West Asia to invest more energy. However, the Chinese Super League teams that do not have superior financial resources and strength may not be the choice of more advantages than disadvantages.
The first three match days of the Asian Championship Elite League from September to November coincided with the sprint period of the Chinese Super League. Compared with last year, the temptation to double the bonus of the Asian Championships Elite League is big enough, but the number of teams is shrinking, and the number of foreign aid is unlimited, which leads to the strength of the opponents. It is more difficult for the Chinese Super League teams to get rich bonuses when they qualify. On the one hand is the champion of the CSL, on the other hand is the award of the Asian Championships, which may amount to tens of millions of yuan. There is also a sense of honor related to the number of places in the CSL Asian Championships. How to choose between Shanghai Shuangxiong and Shandong Taishan is really a difficult problem.
In the middle of September, the newly created Asian Championship Elite League and the second Asian Championship League will officially open. Different from the previous version, the number of teams, competition system and schedule of the new version of the Asian Championships Elite League have changed greatly. The number of participating teams in East Asia has been reduced from 20 to 12, but the group competition has been cancelled and the Swiss round competition system with 12 teams has been changed.
Each team played eight games, two more than the previous group games. In the Swiss round, the winner versus the winner and the loser versus the loser will be drawn immediately after each round. The team will only know the opponent in the next round after each round. There are eight match days in the league stage, from the middle of September to the middle of February next year, namely September 16-18, September 30-October 2, October 21-23, November 4-6, November 25-27, December 2-4, February 11-12 and February 17-19.
The top eight teams will enter the quarter finals, and the two rounds will be held on March 3-5 and March 10-12 next year. The winning teams will go to Saudi Arabia at the end of April to participate in the top eight finals with the four teams in Western Asia. The finals of the top 8 are a single match elimination system. The competition periods are quarter finals (April 25-26 next year), semi-finals (April 29-30 next year) and finals (May 4 next year).
The second league tournament of the Asian Championships in which Zhejiang Team participated still adopted the previous double cycle competition system of group matches. The 16 teams in East Asia are divided into four groups. The six match days in the group match are one day later than those in the Asian Championships Elite League. The knockout competitions will all be held next year. The competition period will be the 1/8 final (February 11-13/February 18-20), the quarter final (March 4-6/March 11-13), and the semi-final (April 8-9/April 15-16). The final will be held on May 17 next year.
Shanghai Haigang and Shanghai Shenhua of the Chinese Super League will participate in the Asian Championship Elite League. Shandong Taishan will participate in the qualifier on August 13. If they can defeat the Thai opponent, they will participate in the Asian Championship Elite League, otherwise they will participate in the second Asian Championship League together with Zhejiang Team. The two levels of the Asian Championships cross year competition system will have a greater impact on the second half of the CSL championship process. Shanghai Shenhua, Shanghai Port and Shandong Taishan, which had played well in the first half and were still in a state of recovery, were involved in three championship days in the second half.
At that time, Shanghai Shenhua will play against Zhejiang, Tianjin and other strong teams in the CSL. Three days after the season ends, Chengdu Rongcheng, the champion of the war, will play the fourth Asian championship game. The last three rounds of the Shanghai Seaport CSL will play Chengdu Rongcheng, Cangzhou Lions, and Tianjin Jinmen Tiger at home, during which there will be two Asian championship matches. Shandong Taishan will face Chengdu Rongcheng four days after the Asian Championships qualifier. If you enter the Asian Championships Elite League, you will also face three stronger teams, namely Wuhan Sanzhen, Tianjin Jinmen Tiger and Zhejiang Team, before and after the three Asian Championships.
What made the Chinese Super League team more headache was that the Chinese Super League ended on November 2, but the four teams participating in the two level league of the Asian Champions League still had to play two Asian Champions League games in late November and early December, so the winter break of the team had to be postponed for one month. As usual, the new season of the CSL will not open until the beginning of March next year, but the four teams participating in the Asian Championships will still have two Asian Championships to play in the middle and late February next year. It means that the four teams must prepare for the pre season match in advance, which will also affect the start of the new season.
For the Chinese Super League teams, the attraction of the Asian Championship Elite League lies in the sharply increased bonus. The championship prize is 12 million dollars, three times the amount of this season. The runner up prize is 4 million dollars, twice as much as this season. In addition, the wining bonus, away travel allowance and bonus for promotion to the top 16 and top 8 in the league stage will also be at least doubled.
This season, Shandong Taishan reached the top 8 of the Asian Championship, and the bonus and away allowance earned a total of 800000 dollars, not counting the five home match days and broadcast income of the Asian Championship. Even if the new version of the Asian Championships Elite League can not enter the top 8 to participate in the final week competition in Saudi Arabia, the same results can obtain a bonus of 1.3 million dollars. If you enter the top 8, you can get at least 420000 dollars.
As long as the new season Asian Championships Elite League reaches the top 16, the bonus income alone is almost equal to the bonus amount of the club in the CSL this season. Although it looks very attractive, it is much more difficult for the Chinese Super League team to qualify than this season because the number of weak teams in the competition has decreased significantly. Two of the five victories of Shandong Taishan in the Asian Championship this season came from weak Philippine teams. In the new season, there are three Japanese and Korean teams in the East Asian region of the Asian Championship Elite League. In addition, there are champions from Australia, Thailand and Malaysia, all of which are stronger.
In the second half of last year, Zhejiang team only won 1, drew 1 and lost 2 in the four matches against Australia and Thailand teams in the Asian Championship group match, while Wuhan three towns fought 4, drew 2 and lost 2 against Japan and South Korea teams. Moreover, the lifting of the number of foreign aid restrictions in the Asian Championship Elite League is good news for Southeast Asian teams that have always relied on foreign aid. However, it is impossible for CSL clubs to sign more foreign aid for the Asian Championships, and they are naturally inferior in the number and strength of foreign aid. The Asian Championship Elite League seems to be a "big cake" with high bonus, but it is more likely that it can not be eaten.
This season's Asian Championship is a cross year competition system, and the group match overlaps with the sprint period of the Chinese Super League championship in the second half of last year. Shandong Taishan was affected by the Asian Championships last year. The Asian Championships went all out to win the championship. After the group game, they were drawn by Dalian people and their rival Shanghai Harbor, which affected the championship ownership to a certain extent. On the contrary, Shanghai Harbor, which was out of the Asian Championship play off, did not waste its huge leading advantage in the first half of the race because Shandong Taishan, the champion, lost 4 points due to the influence of the Asian Championship, even though its state declined in the second half of the race.
The three Chinese Super League teams that participated in the group match of the Asian Championships last year were all affected to varying degrees in the second half of the season due to the double track operations of the Chinese Super League and the Asian Championships, and only the final performance of Zhejiang Team was unsatisfactory. A year later, the Chinese Super League championship teams are faced with more difficult and complicated gains and losses.
