The Chinese Football Association organized the 2018 Chinese Professional Football Leagues review meeting in Shanghai on December 20, to look back at the Chinese professional football development in 2018 and to announce plans for the 2019 season. 

According to the CFA Vice President LI Yuyi, the attendance rate of the 2018 Chinese Super League season was larger than the Japanese and Korean professional football leagues, ranking it sixth in the world, only behind the Bundesliga, Premier League, LaLiga, Serie A and Mexico Super League. 

The average attendance at CSL matches in the 2018 season was 24100 people, an increase on the 2017 season’s 23800 people. 

TV broadcasts of CSL reached 2.4 billion people in 96 countries and regions. Combined viewing people and viewing times reached 337 million. On digital media, the live and on-demand viewing reached 1.054 billion. 

The average ball-in-play time of each match was longer than the 2017 season, hitting 51 minutes 15 seconds, 32 seconds longer than the 2017 season’s 50 minutes 43 seconds. 

What’s more, according to the CFA report, the integrity and discipline of CSL matches saw improvement, with the 2018 being the first year that the league started to emphasize the importance of match integrity and discipline. 

Younger players had more time on the field and more younger players emerged as a positive effect of the U23 policy. 

LI Yuyi commented that the 2018 Chinese Super League season displayed a football culture of “excitement, fairness, respect, advancement and role model” overall, making the league more interesting, operations more professional and has become more accepted by the market. 

Reference: Guangming  

Proofread by Raymond Fitzpatrick