The Season
The two-year old league provided a more positive side of football than the previous season, with much fewer drug-abusing, match-fixing and other scandals on and off the pitch. However, the season was criticised for being unexciting with some stating that the only reason that particular clubs did well was because of foreign talent.
Most teams had not invested enough into their squads for the season to compete for the top positions in the CSL. As the decision to cancel relegation had been announced before the start of the season, unlike the previous season where it was decided halfway through. Teams with no chance of winning the league were thus reluctant to spend money in the transfer market.
Nevertheless, there was still strong competition at the top of the table with six teams fighting for the top two AFC Champions League spots. Dalian Shide remained at the top for almost the whole length of the season but there was a constant rotation of second place.
At the lower half of the table, Chongqing Lifan finished at the bottom of the table for two years running while Shenyang Ginde deteriorated to second from bottom.
Read more about this topic: 2005 Chinese Super League
Famous quotes containing the word season:
“Much poetry seems to be aware of its situation in time and of its relation to the metronome, the clock, and the calendar. ... The season or month is there to be felt; the day is there to be seized. Poems beginning “When” are much more numerous than those beginning “Where” of “If.” As the meter is running, the recurrent message tapped out by the passing of measured time is mortality.”
—William Harmon (b. 1938)
“Business by no means forbids pleasures; on the contrary, they reciprocally season each other; and I will venture to affirm that no man enjoys either in perfection that does not join both.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)