China league set for March kick-off
(FootballAsia.com)
Updated: 2005-11-25 11:46

BEIJING – Chinese double winners Dalian Shide will meet China Super League runners-up Shanghai Shenhua in the Chinese Super Cup in early March in the final tune-up for the two teams before the kick-off of next year’s AFC Champions League.

The China Football Association (CFA) revealed on Thursday that the Super Cup, the traditional domestic curtain-raiser usually played between the country’s league and cup winners, will be played a week before the 2006 China Super League season begins on March 11.

With Dalian beating Shandong Luneng 1-0 in last weekend’s China FA Cup final, Shenhua will join the northeastern giants in both the Super Cup and the continent’s most prestigious club competition, the AFC Champions League.

Following meetings between the CFA and the presidents of CSL clubs in Beijing, it was also announced that 16 teams would compete in the country’s top tier next season with the bottom two teams being relegated and replaced by the top two in the second-tier China League.

It will mark the first time that clubs have been relegated since the inception of the China Super League two years ago. The league, which began with 12 teams in 2004, has expanded by two teams in each subsequent season due to the cancellation of relegation by league authorities.

The addition of two extra teams next season means that teams will now have to play 30 league games during the season, which will run from March 11 to October 22. However, the decision to cancel the China Super League Cup will reduce some of the fixture congestion faced by teams.

Dalian and Shenhua will find out their opponents in the AFC Champions League next week when the draw for the 2006 competition is conducted in Kuala Lumpur. The continental competition begins with Matchday One on Wednesday, March 8.