The 2021

China League One The Chinese Football Association China League (), also known as China League One or Chinese Jia League (中甲联赛), is the second level of professional football in China. Above League One is the Chinese Super League. Prior to the formation of ...

( zh, 2021中国足球协会甲级联赛) is the 18th season of the

, the second tier of the Chinese football league pyramid, since its establishment in 2004.

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic

The 2021 China League One season was scheduled to start on 17 March 2021, but later was postponed. On 1 April, the

Chinese Football Association The Chinese Football Association (CFA) is the governing body for association football, beach soccer and futsal in People's Republic of China (Mainland China). The CFA organizes the men's and women's national teams and administers the country's ...

announced that the season would start on 24 April 2021 and the format of the season. The season was divided into 4 stages (10, 8, 8 and 8 rounds respectively). In the first stage, 18 teams were divided into 3 groups based on the hosts and last season's rankings. In the second, third and fourth stage, the teams in 3 groups will be switched to ensure that each team can play against each other 2 times.

Groups

The draw for the stages took place on 1 April 2021.

Centralised venues

*Meizhou (Group A, D, G, J) ** Hengbei Football Town Field 9 **

Meixian Tsang Hin-chi Stadium Meixian Tsang Hin-chi Stadium () is a multi-purpose stadium in Meixian District, Meizhou, Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South Chin ...

Wuhua County Olympic Sports Centre Wuhua County Olympic Sports Centre (), formerly known as the Wuhua County Football Culture Park (), is a sports complex located in Wuhua County, Meizhou, Guangdong, China. The complex consists of a football stadium named Huitang Stadium, gymnasium, ...

Wuhua County Stadium Wuhua County Stadium () is a multi-purpose stadium in Wuhua County, Meizhou, Guangdong, China. Wuhua County Stadium opened in 1986 for the football preliminaries of 1987 National Games of China. It became the home stadium of Meizhou Hakka F.C., Me ...

*Dalian (Group B, F, H) **

Dalian Sports Centre Stadium Dalian Sports Centre Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Dalian, Liaoning province, China. The stadium has a maximum capacity of 61,000. The stadium was built for the 2013 National Games of China, and switched to other purposes, mainly footba ...

Field 3 ** Dalian Youth Football Training Base Main Stadium **

Jinzhou Stadium Jinzhou Stadium () is a multi-purpose stadium in Jinzhou District, Dalian, Liaoning, People's Republic of China, China. Currently it is mostly used for association football, football matches. The stadium holds 30,776 people and was built in 1997. ...

*Chengdu (Group L) ** Chengdong Sports Park Stadium **

Chengdu Longquanyi Football Stadium Chengdu Longquanyi Football Stadium () is a multi-purpose stadium located in the eastern outskirts of Chengdu, Sichuan, China. Situated in the mostly suburban Longquanyi District, where it derived its name, the stadium is currently used mostly fo ...

Dujiangyan Phoenix Stadium The Dujiangyan Phoenix Stadium () is a multi-purpose stadium in Dujiangyan, Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western ...

Shuangliu Sports Centre The Shuangliu Sports Center () is a sports venue in Shuangliu District, Chengdu, Sichuan, China. Its construction cost 600 million yuan. It has a multi-purpose stadium named Shuangliu Sports Centre Stadium with a capacity of 26,000, and an indoor s ...

*Wuhan (Group C, E, I, K) **

Hankou Cultural Sports Centre Hankou Cultural Sports Centre (Simplified Chinese: 汉口文化体育中心) is a multi-use stadium in Wuhan, China. It is currently used mostly for football matches. The stadium holds 20,000 people. Competitions *2009 AFC U-19 Women's Championsh ...

** Tazi Lake Football Base Field 1 ** Tazi Lake Football Base Field 3 **

Wuhan Five Rings Sports Center Wuhan Five Rings Sports Center (), formerly known as Dongxihu Sports Center (), is a sports complex located in Dongxihu District, Wuhan, Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and i ...

Dates

* First stage (Round 1-10): 24 April - 10 June * Second stage (Round 11-18): 11 July - 17 August * Third stage (Round 19-26): 3 September - 5 October * Fourth Stage (Round 27-34): 20 November - 22 December

Teams

Team changes

To League One

Teams promoted from 2020 China League Two *

Wuhan Three Towns Wuhan Three Towns Football Club () is a professional football club that currently participates in the Chinese Super League under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The club is based in Wuhan, Hubei and their home stadium is the ...

* Zibo Cuju *

Nanjing City Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Map Romanization, alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and t ...

Beijing BIT Beijing Institute of Technology Football Club (Simplified Chinese: 北京理工大学足球俱乐部) or simply BIT is a professional Chinese football club that currently participates in the China League One division under licence from the Chine ...

From League One

Teams promoted to 2021 Chinese Super League *

Changchun Yatai Changchun Yatai Football Club () is a professional Chinese football club that currently participates in the Chinese Super League under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is based in Changchun, Jilin and their home stadi ...

Dissolved entries * Beijing Renhe Beijing Chengfeng Football Club () was a professional Chinese football club that last participated in the Chinese League One under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team was based in Fengtai District, Beijing and their hom ...
* ~~Inner Mongolia Zhongyou~~ * Taizhou Yuanda Taizhou Yuanda Football Club () was a professional Chinese football club. The team was based in Taizhou, Jiangsu. Taizhou Yuanda was dissolved after the 2020 season. Notable players Africa ;Nigeria * Daniel Chima Chukwu Europe ;Croatia * Mar ...

Name changes

Ahead of the 2021 season, the

ordered all clubs to eliminate any corporate references in their names. * Chengdu Better City F.C. changed their name to

Chengdu Rongcheng Chengdu Rongcheng Football Club () is a Chinese professional football club based in Chengdu, Sichuan and their home stadium is the Chengdu Phoenix Hill Football Stadium that has a seating capacity of 50,695. The club currently participates in th ...

in January 2021. * Guizhou Hengfeng F.C. changed their name to

Guizhou Guizhou (; formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked province in the southwest region of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the province. Guizhou borders the autonomous region of Guangxi to t ...

in January 2021. * Nanjing Fengfan F.C. changed their name to

in January 2021. * Jiangxi Liansheng F.C. changed their name to Jiangxi Beidamen in February 2021. * Heilongjiang Lava Spring F.C. changed their name to Heilongjiang Ice City in February 2021. * Zhejiang Energy Greentown F.C. changed their name to

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiang ...

in February 2021.

Clubs

Stadiums and locations

Club locations

Managerial changes

Foreign players

The number of foreign players clubs can register over the course of the season is limited to four and the number of foreign players allowed on each team at any given time is limited to three. A maximum of three foreign players can be registered for each match with a maximum of two can be fielded at any time during the match. In addition, each club can register a Hong Kong, Macau, or Taiwan player of Chinese descent (excluding goalkeepers), provided that he registered as a professional footballer in one of those three association for the first time, as a native player. *Players name in bold indicates the player is registered during the mid-season transfer window. * For Hong Kong, Macau, or Taiwanese players, if they are non-naturalized and were registered as professional footballers in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

's,

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

's, or

Chinese Taipei "Chinese Taipei" is the term used in various international organizations and tournaments for groups or delegations representing the Republic of China (ROC), a country commonly known as Taiwan. Due to the One-China principle stipulated by th ...

's football association for the first time, they are recognized as native players. Otherwise they are recognized as foreign players.

League table

Results

Positions by round

Results by match played

Promotion play-offs

Zibo Cuju and

will play the bottom two teams in the 2021 Chinese Super League (7th and 8th in the Relegation stage) in two-legged playoffs.

Relegation play-offs

Overview

Matches

''2–2 on aggregate. Qingdao Youth Island won 5–4 on penalties.'' ---- ''Guangxi Pingguo Haliao won 1–0 on aggregate.''

Statistics

Top scorers

Hat-tricks

Notes

References

External links

{{2021 in Chinese football China League One seasons 2

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...