This season, CBA League will restart no earlier than June 30. A reporter from the Beijing News recently learned that in the rematch plan planned to be implemented in July, the season time is controlled within one and a half months, and the "shrinkage" of the schedule has become inevitable. Because according to the previously announced CBA "five-year plan", the 2020-2021 season will undergo tremendous changes, and will collide with the men's basketball team qualifiers and the Tokyo Olympics.
Zhejiang Guangsha trains to prepare for the unknown season during the epidemic. Photo/Osports
The remaining schedule ends for 45 days
CBA League informed last week that the rematch plan for this season was postponed to the second half of the year, and CEO Wang Dawei publicly stated that "cancellation of this season is not the current option", and the league is still actively working for the rematch.
Beijing News reporter learned that the CBA League has formulated a rematch schedule for multiple versions of the competition that will start at different times. Among them, the first version that will start on July 1 will end at the latest on August 15; the schedule will be further shortened to the later schedule. Once the season cannot be over before September, it will greatly affect the 2020-2021 season.
This means that the remaining 16 rounds of regular season are no longer possible to be completed as planned, and the tournament system has almost become the only choice to win time and ensure efficiency. In order to ensure the fairness of the 20 teams and protect the interests of sponsors, the regular season will try to let teams who have played fewer matches before in limited rounds, rationalize the playoffs quota to the greatest extent and try not to affect the excitement of the game.
Although the specific schedule may not be released in the short term, after receiving the exact news that "the CBA will not restart in the first half of the year", each team began to adjust its preparation plan, starting holidays or reducing the number of group training.
Zhejiang team will carry out wrist strength challenges after training. Photo/Osports
The next season's competition system is undergoing a huge change
According to the CBA 2017-2022 season CBA league competition plan (i.e., the "Five-Year Plan") announced by the Chinese Basketball Association in 2017, starting from the 2020-2021 season, the regular season will increase from 46 rounds in the last two seasons to 56 rounds; the current snake-shaped division into 4 groups according to the results of last season is adjusted to 2 groups, 4 cycles in the same group, and dual cycles in different groups, and the competition frequency is adjusted from 2 weeks and 5 games to 3 weeks and 8 games. The regular season next season is expected to play about 3 weeks more than this season. It was originally planned to start on October 17 this year and end at the latest on May 18, 2021.
However, this season's league, Tokyo Olympics and men's basketball sloping matches have all been postponed, especially the latter two events are likely to affect the formulation of the schedule for next season. FIBA announced earlier this month that the men's basketball Olympic waives will be held from June 22 to July 4, 2021; and International Olympic Committee subsequently announced that the Tokyo Olympic qualifiers must all end before June 29. In order to gain more preparation time for the Chinese men's basketball team, the CBA league may start in the first half of October this year or even early in the month.
In addition, in order to deal with the intensive schedule, the foreign aid policy in the 2020-2021 season has been adjusted to each team that can register up to 4 foreign aids, with 2 people registering for each game, 4 people in 4 quarters, and up to 1 person in each quarter; the last 4 teams last season allowed 5 people in 4 quarters, and a single foreign aid was allowed in the last quarter.
Beijing News reporter Liu Chen
Editor Wang Xichong Proofreading He Yan
