Chinese Super League

Unlike many top European leagues, the Chinese Super League starts in February or March and ends in November or December. In each season, each club plays each of the other clubs twice, once at home and another away. With 16 clubs currently in the Super League, teams play 30 games each, for a total of 240 games in the season.

The two lowest-placed teams by the end of the season are relegated to the China League One and the top two teams from the League One are promoted, taking their places.

The League position is determined by the highest number of points accumulated during the season. If two or more teams are level on points, tiebreakers are, in the following order

1. Highest number of points accumulated in matches between the teams concerned;
2. Highest goal difference in matches between the teams concerned;
3. Highest number of goals scored in matches between the teams concerned;
4. Highest points accumulated by the reserve teams in the reserve league
5. Highest points accumulated by the U19 teams in the U19 league
6. Highest goal difference;
7. Highest number of goals scored;
8. Fair-Play points (Clubs deduct 1 point for a yellow card, and 3 points for a red card);
9. Draw by lot;

When the Asian Football Confederation started the AFC Champions League in the 2002–03 season, China was given 2 slots in the competition. Qualification for the AFC Champions League changed in 2009 as AFC distributed 4 slots to China. The top three of the league, as well as the winner of the Chinese FA Cup, qualify for the AFC Champions League of the next year. If the FA Cup finalists finish the league in 3rd or higher, the 4th place team in the league will take the Champions League spot.

Between the 2002–03 and the 2017 season, Chinese clubs won the AFC Champions League two times, behind Korean K-League with five wins, and Japanese J-League with three wins.

The Chinese Super League is currently first in the AFC Club Competitions Ranking of Asian leagues based on their performances in Asian competitions over a four-year period and FIFA ranking for national teams.[2]

On 17 November 2017, the Vice-president of the CFA, Li Yuyi, disclosed the expansion plan of the top four level leagues of China. The Chinese Super League is planning to expand to 18 clubs, followed by China League One with 20 clubs, China League Two with 32 clubs and the Chinese Football Association Member Association Champions League with 48 clubs.[3]

Also, the CFA stated that "we should build CSL the 6th best league in the world."

For the history of Chinese Professional football before the inception of the Chinese Super league, see Chinese Jia-A League.

The Chinese National Football League was started in 1951, namely the National Football Conference, it was a round-robin tournament with 8 teams participating. In 1954, the competition was renamed as National Football League, the League was divided into two Divisions in 1956 and promotion/relegation between the two tiers started since 1957. In the 1980s, the Chinese Football Association allowed enterprise entities to sponsor and invest in football teams. The League entered Semi-pro period in 1987, sponsored by Goldlion Group, the league played its first ever home and away season, teams participating includes the top 7 clubs of 1986 Division 1 together with Liaoning, who was 1985 season champions but did not compete in 1986 league season due to participate in Asian Club Championship, the tournament was named as National Football League Division 1 Group A, shortly as Chinese Jia-A League, the other 8 clubs of Division 1 and top 4 clubs from Division 2 participated in Chinese Jia-B League. The two groups merged in 1988 season but divided again in 1989.

In 1994, as part of the sports system reform project, the Chinese Jia-A League became the country's first professional football league. The Jia-A league achieved success in its early years, but in the late ’90s heavy criticism existed towards the League's management practices like the lack of continuity in key policies, and some of its member clubs was criticised for a lack of sustainable development. At the same time, the league was affected by gambling, match-fixing and corruption.[4] the chaotic state of Jia-A causes troubled investment environment with sponsors and club owners bowing out. The Chinese Football Association then decided to reform the League system, which ultimately led to the creation of the Chinese Super League. The initial conception is to introduce truly commercial methods and let professional football market operate more freely, drawing on the experience of professional Leagues in Europe to redesign the league structure and strengthen professionalism.

On January 13, 2001, Yan Shiduo, vice-president of the Chinese Football Association, discussed about setting up a new professional league system.[5] In 2002, the CFA made a decision to establish the Chinese Super League, which started in 2004.

Compared to the Jia-A, the CSL is a lot more demanding on teams. The CFA and CSL committee imposed a range of minimum criteria to ensure professional management and administration, financial probity, and a youth development program at every club. The CSL published first edition of CSL club criteria in 2002 and revised it several times, club license system was introduced since 2004. Besides the regular professional league, the CSL also has a reserve league, and Youth super league plays in U-19,U-17,U-15,U-14 and U-13 levels.

The CSL and China League One's goals are to promote high quality and high-level competition, introduce advanced managerial concepts to the market, enforce the delivery of minimum standards of professionalism, encourage the influx of more higher quality foreign coaches and players, and gradually establish the European system for player registrations and transfers.

The first CSL season began in 2004, with 12 teams in the league. The inaugural season was plagued with controversy, which continued from the former league, Jia-A, and where, since 1999, scandals such as match fixing and gambling had been uncovered.[6] This resulted in loss of interest in the domestic game, low attendances and great financial losses.

The original plan was to have one relegated team and two promoted teams for the 2004 season and 2005 season, thus increasing the number of teams in 2006 to 14. But the CFA's decisions caused the relegations to be cancelled for these 2 years.

For the 2005 season, the league expanded to 14 teams after Wuhan Huanghelou and Zhuhai Zhongbang won promotion from China League One. The Zhuhai team, formerly Zhuhai Anping, had been bought by the Shanghai Zhongbang real estate company and relocated to Shanghai for the 2005 season, and subsequently renamed to Shanghai Zobon.

In 2006, the league was planned to expand to 16 teams with the newly promoted Xiamen Lanshi and Changchun Yatai. However, Sichuan Guancheng withdrew before the start of the season, leaving only 15 teams when the season started on March 11. Shanghai Liancheng Zobon, after another change of ownership, was renamed Shanghai United.

In 2007, the league was again planned to be expanded to 16 teams, but once again it found itself one team short. Shanghai United's owner, Zhu Jun, bought a major share in local rival Shanghai Shenhua and merged the two teams. As a result, Shanghai Shenhua retained its name as it already had a strong fanbase in the city, while Shanghai United pulled out of the league.

In 2008, the season started with 16 clubs participating for the first time, however Wuhan protested against punishments made by the CFA after a match against Beijing Guo'an, and announced its immediate withdrawal from the league, which left the season to finish with 15 clubs.

Since 2009, the league has run with 16 stable clubs participating in each year. Two are relegated to China League One, and two promoted from China League One each season.

In 2010, the CSL was beset by a scandal going right to the top of the CFA. The Chinese government took nationwide action against football gambling, match-fixing and corruption, and former CFA vice presidents Xie Yalong, Nan Yong and Yang Yimin were arrested.[7] On February 22, 2010, CFA relegate Guangzhou Yiyao for match-fixing in 2006 China League One Season, as well as Chengdu Blades for match-fixing in 2007 China League One season.[8]

In 2011, the anti-corruption movement had visibly improved the image of the CSL, with increases to attendance. Clubs such as Guangzhou Evergrande and Shanghai Shenhua began investing heavily in foreign stars. After former Fluminense midfielder Darío Conca transferred in 2011, some notable signings during the 2012 seasons included former Chelsea forward Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka, former Barcelona midfielder Seydou Keita and Fábio Rochemback, former Sevilla forward Frédéric Kanouté, former Blackburn Rovers forward Yakubu and former Borussia Dortmund forward Lucas Barrios. Former Japanese national team coach Takeshi Okada took up the reins as the new coach of Hangzhou Greentown, former Argentina national team coach Sergio Batista replaced Jean Tigana as Shanghai Shenhua's head coach, and former Italy national team and Juventus manager Marcello Lippi replaced Lee Jang-Soo as Guangzhou Evergrande's head coach.

In 2012, Guangzhou Evergrande became the first Chinese team to defend their CSL title, and to win consecutive titles. However, eight-time champions of Professional League, Dalian Shide, had seriously financial problems during the entire season, especially after the arrest of club owner Xu Ming. They had planned to merge with Dalian Aerbin, the other CSL club of the city, but the Chinese Football Association blocked the merger at the end, as Dalian Shide failed to cancel their registration as a CSL club before the merger. So Aerbin effectively purchased and swallowed up Shide, including the club's famed academy and training facilities. Dalian Shide was officially dissolved on 31 January 2013. The country's most successful club had ceased to exist.

In 2013, David Beckham became first global ambassador for CSL. Guangzhou Evergrande won AFC Champions League for first time. In February 2013, Shanghai Shenhua was stripped of its 2003 Chinese Ji-A league title as part of a broad match-fixing crackdown. In total, 12 clubs were handed punishments, while 33 people, including former CFA vice-president Xie Yalong and Nan Yong, received life bans. Also in 2013, Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao won the Asian Champions League title, the first time a Chinese Super League team has won that award.

In 2014, Guangzhou Evergrande became the first Chinese club to win four consecutive professional league titles.

In 2015, ex-Tottenham midfielder Paulinho moved to Guangzhou Evergrande at the age of 27, Guangzhou Evergrande become AFC champions League champions for second time.

In 2016, Chinese super league became a rising power in the global transfer market. Brazil international Ramires, Colombia international Jackson Martinez and Fredy Guarin were among the notable signings, while Pavel Nedvěd was appointed as second global ambassador for CSL.

2017 saw the Chinese Super League (CSL) catapulted to global attention. Players such as Oscar, Carlos Tevez, Ricardo Carvalho, Alexandre Pato and John Obi Mikel all moved east during the year. Guangzhou Evergrande won their 7th consecutive league title.

2018, in the 28th round of the 2018 Chinese Super League, the two title favourites Shanghai SIPG and Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao clashed head-to-head, with Shanghai SIPG coming away with 5 - 4 hard win over Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao to open up the points gap with Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao. At last, Shanghai SIPG won the 2018 Chinese Super League Champion , thus breaking Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao's 7-year monopoly of the Chinese Super League.

At the 2019 CSL Mobilization Meeting, the CFA Referees Committee officially announced that a professional referee system will be introduced in the CSL in 2019, with two foreign referees including Mark Clattenburg, Milorad Mažić, and three local referees to be officially hired as the first professional referees in the history of Chinese football. The two foreign professional referees will be mainly responsible for enforcing the Chinese Super League, but will also provide coaching and training for local referees.

Affected by COVID-19,the 2020 Chinese Super League has been postponed to July 25. The 16 teams will be divided into two groups to play in Suzhou and Dalian. This year's league was temporarily changed to a "Group stage + Knockout" format and adopted a tournament system.

The All-time CSL table is an overall record of all match results, points, and goals of every team that has played in CSL since its inception in 2004. The table is accurate as of the end of the 2019 season.

There are several key rivalries and local derbies that have formed in the Chinese Super League, including:

"Shanghai Derbies"

• 2004: Shanghai Shenhua v Inter Shanghai
• 2005: Shanghai Shenhua v Inter Shanghai v Shanghai United
• 2006: Shanghai Shenhua v Shanghai United
• 2012: Shanghai Shenhua v Shanghai Shenxin
• 2013–2015: Shanghai Shenhua v Shanghai Shenxin v Shanghai SIPG
• 2016–present: Shanghai Shenhua v Shanghai SIPG

"Guangzhou Derbies"

• 2012–present: Guangzhou F.C. v Guangzhou City

"Dalian Derbies"

• 2012: Dalian Shide v Dalian Aerbin

"Tianjin Derbies"

• 2017–2019: Tianjin TEDA v Tianjin Tianhai

"Beijing Derbies"

• 2018–2019: Beijing Sinobo Guoan v Beijing Renhe

Professional footballers in China receive relatively high salaries when compared to other Chinese sports leagues and football leagues in other countries. The average salary for CSL players is $1,016,579 in 2017,[10] it is ranked at eleventh place among all of the professional sports leagues and the sixth-highest of any professional association football league in the world.

CSL has two transfer windows—the primary pre-season transfer window lasts two months from January to February, and the secondary mid season transfer window runs one month from mid June to mid July. As of the 2018 season, the CSL introduced new rules mandating that each club must register a maximum 31-man squad, with 27 Chinese Players, including a player from Hong Kong, Macau and Chinese Taipei, and 4 foreign players. In the transfer window clubs could sign 5 Chinese players at any age, plus 3 under 21 Chinese players; clubs could register 4 foreign players in the winter transfer, and replace two of them in the summer transfer.[11]

The record transfer fee for a CSL player has risen rapidly since the investment boost started in 2015. The six most expensive transfers with players coming to CSL have exceeded €30 million, with Chelsea selling Oscar to Shanghai SIPG in December 2016 for a fee of €60 million,[12] Zenit Saint Petersburg selling Hulk to Shanghai SIPG for €55.8 million in July 2016, Shakhtar Donetsk selling Alex Teixeira to Jiangsu Suning for €50 million in February 2016, Atlético Madrid selling Jackson Martínez to Guangzhou Evergrande for €42 million in February 2016, Villarreal selling Cédric Bakambu to Beijing Sinobo Guoan for €40 million in February 2018, Atlético Madrid selling Yannick Carrasco to Dalian Yifang for €30 million in February 2018. Guangzhou Evergrande's sale of Paulinho to Barcelona for €40 million in 2017 broke the record for a CSL player transfer to other leagues. Transfer fees for domestic players also increased dramatically. Beijing Sinobo Guoan sold Chinese International Zhang Chengdong to Hebei China Fortune for ¥150 million in January 2017, breaking the domestic transfer record for Chinese players.

The Chinese Football Association introduced a new transfer tax to restrict transfer spending. On June 20, 2017, CFA announced that any club that pays more than ¥45 million for a foreign player transfer or ¥20 million for a Chinese player transfer must pay the same amount to a CFA youth development fund.[13]

In early years numerous players from Eastern Europe, Africa and Latin America regions were signed as the foreign players in the Chinese league. Steadily, a lot of players transferred to China from major European and South American Leagues. The league has rules, at present, restricting the number of foreign players strictly to four per team. A team could use a maximum of three foreign players on the field each game. This is to promote native player improvement and to conform to rules regarding international club competitions in the AFC. Between 2009 and 2017, there was an additional slot for a player from AFC countries. During the middle of the 2012 season, it was decided that teams that were competing in the AFC Champions League were allowed to have two extra foreign players, which can bring the number of foreigners on a team's seven; however, the policy was removed in the 2013 season.

Policy for Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwanese players has changed continually. Players from Hong Kong Football Association were considered foreigners at the beginning of 2009, but the league held back the change until the summer transfer window. After the 2010 season, players from Macau Football Association and Chinese Taipei Football Association (except goalkeepers) were not considered foreigners in CSL matches, but will be regarded as foreigners in AFC competitions. In the 2015 season, players who had not played for the Hong Kong national football team, Macau national football team or the Chinese Taipei national football team were no longer deemed native players.[16] In the 2016 and 2017 season, players from the three associations whose contract was signed after 1 January 2016 were no longer deemed native players.[17] From the 2018 season, a club could register one non-naturalized player from the three associations as a native player.[18] According to the Chinese FA, a non-naturalized player refers to someone who was first registered as a professional footballer in the three football associations. Furthermore, Hong Kong or Macau players must be of Chinese descent of Hong Kong or Macau permanent resident, and Taiwanese players must be citizens of Taiwan.[19]

As of 28 August 2019

All-time top scorer Rank Name Years Goals Apps Ratio 1 Elkeson 2013– 106 159 0.66 2 Wu Lei 2013–2018 102 172 0.59 3 Eran Zahavi 2016–2020 91 105 0.87 4 Gao Lin 2005–2009, 2011– 87 257 0.29 4 Han Peng 2004–2018 87 303 0.32 5 Li Jinyu 2004–2010 73 151 0.48 6 Ricardo Goulart 2015–2018 71 104 0.68 7 Giovanni Moreno 2012– 66 195 0.32 8 Qu Bo 2004–2014, 2016 63 244 0.26 9 Jiang Ning 2004– 62 290 0.21 9 Xu Liang 2004–2006, 2008–2014 62 244 0.25 9 Luis Ramírez 2006,2008–2009, 2010–2011 62 143 0.43 Bold denotes players still playing in the CSL.

Appearances Rank Name Years Apps 1 Yang Zhi 2005–2019 350 2 Zhang Yaokun 2004–2016 334 3 Liu Jianye 2005– 325 4 Wang Song 2004–2005,2008– 322 5 Xu Yunlong 2004–2016 315 5 Zhang Xiaofei 2004– 315 7 Bai Yuefeng 2006– 313 8 Wang Yun 2004– 306 9 Cao Yang 2004– 297 10 Yu Tao 2004–2015 297 Bold denotes players still playing in the CSL.

This table lists average attendances of clubs yearly, but only for seasons when that club played in the top division. Clubs are listed with their current names.

The Fire-god trophy is the official trophy award to CSL champions. The trophy was created by the Sculpture Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and donated by the official partner of the Chinese Super League, Hengyuanxiang Group, in 2004. It consists of a pure gold trophy and a nephrite plinth base. The lower part of the trophy is the model of a Great Wall beacon tower; on the upper part, on top of the rising beacon, is a football wrapped by the earth, while the base has the engraved years and names of each Chinese Super League winner since 2004. The trophy weighs 5.548 kilograms (12.23 lb). The trophy and plinth are 52 cm (20 in) tall.

The trophy is not awarded to the winning club permanently. After the award ceremony they are awarded a replica, and they are allowed to retain the genuine trophy for one year.

It is also named the "Most Valuable Player".

Year	Footballer	Club	Nationality
2004	Zhao Junzhe	Liaoning Zhongyu	China
2005	Branko Jelić	Beijing Guoan	Serbia
2006	Zheng Zhi	Shandong Luneng Taishan	China
2007	Du Zhenyu	Changchun Yatai
2008	Emil Martínez	Shanghai Shenhua	Honduras
2009	Samuel Caballero	Changchun Yatai
2010	Duvier Riascos	Shanghai Shenhua	Colombia
2011	Muriqui	Guangzhou Evergrande	Brazil
2012	Cristian Dănălache	Jiangsu Sainty	Romania
2013	Darío Conca	Guangzhou Evergrande	Argentina
2014	Elkeson		Brazil
2015	Ricardo Goulart	Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao
2016
2017	Eran Zahavi	Guangzhou R&F	Israel
2018	Wu Lei	Shanghai SIPG	China
2019	Paulinho	Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao	Brazil

This award is awarded to the top goalscorer of the league that year.

Year	Top scorer	Club	Goals
2004	Kwame Ayew	Inter Shanghai	17
2005	Branko Jelić	Beijing Guoan	21
2006	Li Jinyu	Shandong Luneng Taishan	26
2007			15
2008	Éber Luís	Tianjin Teda	14
2009	Hernán Barcos Luis Ramírez	Shenzhen Asia Travel / Shanghai Shenhua Guangzhou GPC	17
2010	Duvier Riascos	Shanghai Shenhua	20
2011	Muriqui	Guangzhou Evergrande	16
2012	Cristian Dănălache	Jiangsu Sainty	23
2013	Elkeson	Guangzhou Evergrande	24
2014			28
2015	Aloísio	Shandong Luneng Taishan	22
2016	Ricardo Goulart	Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao	19
2017	Eran Zahavi	Guangzhou R&F	27
2018	Wu Lei	Shanghai SIPG	27
2019	Eran Zahavi	Guangzhou R&F	29

There is also an award that is awarded to the top Chinese goalscorer of that season, which was first introduced in 2011.

There is also an award that is awarded to the U-23 player of the year, which was first introduced in 2017.

The current official title sponsor of the Chinese Super League is Ping'an Insurance, under the second sponsor deal between CSL and Ping'an from 2018 through 2022.

As well as sponsorship for the league itself, the Chinese Super League has a number of official partners and suppliers. The official equipment supplier for the league is Nike who have had the contract since the 2005 season. According to data published by Imedia Culture Communication Co., Ltd, the sponsor value from official partners and suppliers of Chinese Super League reaches 600 million Yuan in 2017 season.[25]

The following table shows the partners and suppliers of the Chinese Super League. Bold denotes current sponsor.

The first broadcast rights holders of the rebranded Chinese Super League was the Shanghai Media Group (SMG), in September 2003 they signed the contract for 2004 to 2006 season.[26] The second SMG contract was signed in February 2007 for the five-year period from 2007 to 2011.[27]

CCTV acquired the CSL Television rights in 2012, and they held the rights until 2015 under annual contract,[28] CSL was broadcast in CCTV's public cable TV channel CCTV5 and CCTV5+. however, the Sateliite TV rights was sold to Cloud Media from 2014 to 2017.

Starting from the 2016 Season The Chinese Super League sold its television rights on a collective basis. However, it benefits CSL clubs almost equally according to CSL commercial contracts. The money is divided into three parts: 10% reserved for the Chinese football association and CSL company, which is paid out as facilities fees and management expenses, as to the remaining 90%, 81% of them is divided equally between the clubs; and 9% is awarded on a merit basis based on final league position.[29]

The current media rights holder is the China Sports Media Co., Ltd. (CSM, simplified Chinese: 体奥动力，pinyin: tǐ ào dòng lì ), CSM bought the rights for five seasons (2016–2020) for 8 billion yuan in October 2015. On January 24, 2018, The CSL and CSM reached an agreement to extend the original five-year contract to a 10-year one(2016–2025) and to raise the price to 11 billion yuan, about 1.73 billion dollars according to the exchange rate then prevailing.[30][31]

Outside of China, currently IMG holds the global media rights to the Chinese Super League. The first contract was signed in 2016 for two seasons,[32] and in 2018 IMG and CSM has sealed a three-year extension.[33] The CSL is now broadcasting in 96 countries across the world.[34]

-

Country/Region	Network
AustriaDACH	DAZN
GermanyDACH
Italy
SwitzerlandDACH
Australia	OVO Mobile
New Zealand
Balkan countries * Bosnia and Herzegovina * Croatia * Montenegro * North Macedonia * Serbia * Slovenia	SportKlub
Brazil	ESPN
United States
Canada	OneSoccer
Eurasia countries * Armenia * Azerbaijan * Belarus * Estonia * Kazakhstan * Kyrgyzstan * Latvia * Lithuania * Moldova * Tajikistan * Turkmenistan * Uzbekistan	Setanta Sports Eurasia
Georgia	Silknet
Indonesia	Mola TV
Timor Leste
Ireland	Premier-Free Sports
United Kingdom
Israel	Sport 1
Macau	TDM
Philippines	Tap Sports
Poland	Polsat Sport
Portugal	Sport TV
Singapore	Singtel
Turkey	S Sport
Sub-Saharan Africa * Nigeria * South Africa * Kenya * Ghana	StarTimes

^DACH - other matches also available on Sportdigital