AFC Champions League easy targets! Three Chinese Super League teams participate and all rank among the bottom three, everyone wants to play against CSL teams.

The Chinese men's national team had no head coach for two straight international match windows, until this Wednesday when a domestic coach was finally chosen.Shao Jiayi, the slow working style of the Chinese Football Association really makes Chinese football suffer. With the November international window coming soon, it’s unclear whether the national team can secure friendly opponents. Besides that, since the CSL season follows the calendar year while the AFC Champions League Elite has aligned with the top five leagues and the UEFA Champions League by adopting a cross-year schedule, this causes Chinese top teams to focus on the domestic league title race just as the ACL group stage begins. As a result, the three CSL teams become easy targets in the ACL, with every ACL team eager to face them.

After the first four rounds of the AFC Champions League group stage, the three CSL teams are shockingly ranked among the bottom three. In the East Zone, 12 teams compete in the group stage, with the top 8 advancing directly, but the CSL teams are ranked 10th to 12th, which is truly pitiful.

• Shanghai Port, the defending CSL champions and current league leaders with only one round remaining, have 1 draw and 3 losses in 4 ACL matches, earning just 1 point without a single win, ranking last in the ACL and bringing great shame to the CSL.
• Chengdu Rongcheng, a newcomer to the ACL, have 1 win, 1 draw, and 2 losses in 4 matches, accumulating 4 points and ranking second to last.
• Shanghai Shenhua, with 1 win, 1 draw, and 2 losses in 4 matches, also have 4 points and rank third from the bottom.

The main reason CSL teams have become easy targets in the ACL lies with the Chinese Football Association, which restricts foreign players and maintains an unaligned schedule, making it difficult for strong CSL teams participating in the ACL. Inefficiency and slow progress are now the biggest issues facing the CFA. Meanwhile, Japan’s J-League has already decided to switch to a cross-year schedule aligned with the ACL, and South Korea’s K-League is actively discussing following suit, but the CSL remains inactive.