Original title: The scale of the 2024 Chinese Football Association Cup will be expanded, and the fine-tuning of the competition system will increase the suspense of the game.
People's Daily reporter Ou Xingrong.
On the afternoon of February 23, the first draw ceremony for the 2024 Chinese Football Association Cup was held in Shanghai. The draw determines the first four rounds of matchups, 80 teams in the duel in turn, the first round of matches will be played on March 15-17, and the Chinese Super League teams will appear in the fourth round.
The scale of the tournament has been expanded, and the principle of the home field has been fine-tuned.
Compared with last season, the 2024 Chinese Football Association Cup presents two changes, the first is that the scale of the competition has been further expanded, more amateur teams have qualified for the competition, and the number of rounds of the competition has also increased from seven to eight rounds, and the scale of participating teams has reached 80.
In the qualifying round of the Chinese Football Association Cup held in Zhuhai from January 15 to 23 this year, 16 amateur teams were given the opportunity to participate in the main round of this year's FA Cup, and they will appear in the first round of the main competition, and the winners will advance to the second round of the FA Cup.
The 2024 Chinese Football Association Cup will continue to use the single-elimination system, but the principle of determining the home field has been adjusted, and the first four rounds will continue to follow the principle of "weak teams are given priority" from last season, but from the fifth round of matches, the FA Cup will be drawn for the second time to determine the matchups and home and away arrangements from the fifth to eighth rounds.
It is worth mentioning that this season, the B teams of Shandong Taishan and Shanghai Port have qualified to play in the Chinese Second League, and in order to avoid affiliation and unfair competition, these two teams will not participate in the 2024 Chinese Football Association Cup.
The fixtures for this year's FA Cup have been fully confirmed.
The schedule of the 2024 Chinese Football Association Cup has been fully confirmed, and the first round of matches will kick off from March 15th to 17th, with the winning team in the qualifying round playing against the winning team in the qualifying round against some teams in the second division, the champion team and other teams in the FA Cup qualifying round, a total of 16 games, and the winning team in the qualifying round has a home advantage.
The second round is the second round of the team against the winner of the first round, a total of 16 games, the time is April 20-22, the first round of the winner team has home advantage.
The third round is for the Chinese team to play against the winner of the second round, a total of 16 games, the time is May 17-19, the second round winner has home advantage.
The fourth round of the tournament will welcome the official appearance of 16 Chinese Super League teams, against the winners of the third round, on June 21-23.
The fifth round of 8 matches will be played on July 15-17; The sixth round of 4 matches, from August 20 to 22; The seventh round is the semi-finals, which will be held from September 24 to 26; On November 25, the eighth round will usher in the final championship and runner-up battle.
According to the format, if the two teams are tied after 90 minutes in the first to fourth rounds, the winner of the match will be determined by penalty kicks. In rounds 5 to 8, if the two teams are tied after 90 minutes, extra time will be played until a penalty shootout.
There are bright spots in the wheel, and the suspense is more exciting.
The single-game knockout format of the FA Cup makes the game full of suspense from the first round. In the first round of the competition, 16 qualifying winning teams were officially unveiled, including ethnic minority teams composed of Tibetan players such as Gannan 92 United Team, and student army built by high school students such as Nanning Juding.
In the second round of the tournament that started on April 20, the teams of the Chinese Second League were put on the battlefield. The second division team has always been able to run out of "dark horses", and from time to time create "upsets" in which the weak defeat the strong. For example, in the 2023 season, the Chongqing Tongliang Dragons team from the second division of the FA Cup started from the first round and passed four rounds in a row, only losing to the final champion Shanghai Shenhua in the 1 4 finals, but the momentum of the rush is impressive.
The third round will usher in a direct dialogue between the lower divisions and the Central League teams. According to the past situation, this is also the round with the highest probability of upset, due to the inability to use foreign aid, the Chinese team has a limited impact advantage in the face of low-level teams, leaving room for low-level teams to upset.
The fourth round of the Chinese Super League team will be officially unveiled. Unlike last season, after the fourth round of the FA Cup, all participating teams will be drawn again to determine the next matchups and home and away arrangements. This year's FA Cup can be described as the opening of the "crowd melee" mode, with suspense and more exciting and intense competitions.
*: People's Daily Online.