The average attendance rate of the 2024 Chinese Super League is nearly 20,000+ and the quality of the game is improved, and the four major points will be finalized in 2025

Reporter Chen Yong reports from Beijing On December 13, the "2024 Professional League Special Press Briefing" was held in Beijing, and Yang Xu, vice chairman of the Chinese Football Association, summarized the overall situation of the third-level professional league in the 2024 season and introduced the work priorities of the league in the 2025 season. It is worth noting that the admission list, replacement list and league policy will still take some time to finally land.

In the 2024 season, a very significant improvement in the third-level professional league is the net game time, with the average net game time of the Chinese Super League being 54 minutes and 01 seconds, up from 50 minutes and 51 seconds in the 2023 season; The average net game time of the Chinese League A and the Chinese League B has also reached a new high in the past five seasons, and the change is due to the application of the key rule of precise stoppage time.

In terms of young players, the average playing time and goal scoring percentage of Under-21s in the third division have increased significantly, with some young players gradually occupying important positions in the first team.

The Chinese Football Association has revised and improved the "Disciplinary Guidelines of the Chinese Football Association" and issued the "Chinese Football Association Disciplinary Supervision Specifications", leaving no loopholes in the construction of the system. In the 2024 season, the number of punishment decisions made by the Disciplinary Committee of the Chinese Football Association has decreased by 33% compared with the 2023 season, of which the number of penalties in the Chinese Super League has decreased by 60%, and the number of penalties in the Chinese League has decreased by 41%.

Referee management is the biggest change in the 2024 season of the Chinese Super League, and the Chinese Football Association has issued eight new policies to strengthen measures in fair adjudication, referee selection, promotion and relegation, unified penalty scale, and improvement of refereeing level. In particular, the public evaluation of club appeal cases is carried out, and the results of the evaluation are released to the public in a timely manner, which ensures the fairness and authority of the referees of the professional league and responds to social concerns.

In terms of the ball market, the total number of on-site spectators of the Chinese Super League exceeded 4.66 million throughout the year, with an average of nearly 20,000 spectators per game, and 54,189 spectators in Beijing Guoan and Shandong Taishan were the largest in the Chinese Super League. More than 2.28 million people watched the matches of the Chinese League throughout the year, and Dalian InBev's home match against Shanghai Jiading Huilong attracted more than 60,000 spectators, setting a new record for the Chinese League.

Between the video copyright and business development layers, the Chinese Super League and Migu Video Platform officially established a five-year strategic partnership, and successfully signed a contract with China Resources C'estbon, opening a new title cooperation cycle for the 2024-2026 season.

In terms of league management, in the 2024 season, the three-level professional league council committee was officially established, and a league governance model of club consultation, co-governance and sharing was established.

The Chinese Football Association has also worked closely with relevant departments of the sports system and the public security system to successfully crack down on a series of illegal acts in the field of football through the investigation and handling of cases.

At this press conference, Yang Xu talked about the four priorities and directions of work for the 2025 season.

First, we will further tighten the league access standards, do a good job in top-level design, and "intensify the work of clearing up arrears of wages and arrears", so as to effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of players, clubs and youth training institutions. At this level, it has always been the focus and difficulty of the three-level professional league, and it is an effective way to take practical measures to improve the overall business operation ability of the professional league, and the club to strengthen the individual business operation ability.

Second, continue to rectify "fake gambling black" with a high-pressure situation and purify the environment of professional leagues. This is also the focus of the professional league in recent years, and the normalization of judicial supervision is an inevitable choice.

Third, the third-level professional league should comprehensively promote and improve the construction of youth training echelons and reserve talents, fully tap the reserve force of excellent football, and create favorable conditions for young players to go abroad for further study. At present, the U series league and the Chinese Super League B team play in the Chinese second league to help young players improve in an all-round way.

Fourth, in terms of the construction of professional league brand culture, Yang Xu said that the greatest exploration of the social benefits of professional football cultural brands is also an important goal for the development of third-level professional leagues. The professional league will fully absorb the nutrients of China's excellent traditional culture, learn from the experience of domestic and foreign brands, create unique brand characteristics, create a warm Chinese football professional league, and further promote the revitalization and development of Chinese football.

The professional league briefing did not involve the league policy, access list and replacement situation for the 2025 season.

Regarding the league policy, with the convening of the Super League meeting on December 11 and the Chinese Super League meeting on December 12, the policies have been gradually revealed, on this point, this newspaper has a detailed introduction on the 12th, the changes are mainly foreign aid policies and league registration lists, of which the league list will be divided into A list and B list, the initial 27 A list includes unlimited local players and foreign aid, 8 people B list for U21 players, including ordinary U21 players and local U21 players. B-list players are free to play in both first-team and B-team matches.

Since the meeting has not yet been held, it will still take some time for the league policy to be implemented, and normally speaking, the end of December is the node of the league policy announcement.

As for the admission list and the supplementary list, in fact, they are two sides of the same coin, and at the same time as the admission list is announced, the supplementary list will also be announced immediately. At the previous access work conference, the Chinese Football Association also stipulated that all clubs should fully solve the problem of arrears of wages and debts in late December, otherwise they will not be able to admit. From this point of view, the league entry list will not be announced until at least January next year, and the outside world hopes that this time will be early January, so that the club can leave enough time for reinforcements and preparations.