The Chinese Football Association (CFA) announced the long-delayed 2020 Chinese Super League (CSL) schedule on Wednesday with the kick-off date set to July 25.

Secretary General of CFA, Louis Liu, or Liu Yi in Chinese, talked with CGTN Sports Scene anchor and commentator Wang Dong Thursday afternoon, explaining how challenging it is to launch the new CSL season during these extraordinary times as the coronavirus pandemic had halted sports globally for the past few months. 

According to Liu, in addition to the CSL, the CFA has been kept busy with different national teams. It made arrangements for the national women's team, who were training in Wuhan during the coronavirus outbreak early this year, to fly to Australia to complete the 2020 Tokyo Olympics qualifications and return to China later. The CFA also did its best to ensure all the other national teams compete safely during the pandemic.  

The kick-off date of the 2020 CSL was postponed from February 22 to July 25. For months, the CFA has been dealing with some tremendous financial losses caused by the delay. Meanwhile, the football governing body has been working closely with the authorities to try to jump-start not only the CSL but all the other domestic leagues under safe circumstances.

The CFA recruited Professor Zhang Wenhong, a Shanghai-based infectious disease specialist, to help set guidelines for the season restart. According to Zhang, the game should resume behind closed doors but more audience could be allowed as the situation improves. 

With the 2020 CSL set to begin in three weeks, Liu is happy to see that going through all the unprecedented challenges has only made the CFA stronger.