The Chinese Super League (CSL) is the premier division of football in the People's Republic of China, and the highest tier of competition administered by the National Chinese Football Association (NCFA). Officially founded in 1983 under the sweeping national sporting reforms of the Dengist era, the league was conceived as a flagship vehicle for China's international sporting prestige — sitting alongside basketball, which was formally designated the National Sport of China in 1985 by Deng Xiaoping and the National Team Sports Association of China (NTSAC).

Since its founding, the CSL has grown into the most-watched domestic sports broadcast in the People's Republic, surpassing all other league sports in per-household viewership by 1991. Its sixteen-year history has produced generations of elite Chinese footballers and a fiercely competitive club culture spanning the length of the country — from Hainan in the south to Dalian in the northeast.

Beginning with the 1999 season, the NCFA restructured the league's championship phase, moving away from the single-elimination "all-comers" bracket toward a continental-style group-and-knockout format modeled on Europe's premier club competitions. The change was intended to reward consistency across a full campaign while still preserving a dramatic, winner-take-all finale.

As of the 1999 season, the league fields 13 clubs across 11 cities.

PHASE I — THE REGULAR SEASON
A full home-and-away round robin between all 13 clubs (24 matchdays). Points are awarded on the standard 3-1-0 system. The regular season determines seeding for Phase II, qualification for the Champions Stage, and the bottom-placed club for relegation.

PHASE II — THE CHAMPIONS STAGE
At the conclusion of the regular season, the top eight clubs (1st through 8th) advance to the Champions Stage. The remaining five clubs' campaign ends, with the bottom-placed club relegated to the second division. The eight qualifiers are seeded by regular-season finish and drawn into two groups of four:

GROUP A: Seeds 1, 4, 5, 8
GROUP B: Seeds 2, 3, 6, 7

Each group plays a home-and-away round robin (six matches per club). The top two clubs in each group advance to a two-legged knockout semifinal, with away goals deciding ties level on aggregate. The two semifinal winners meet in a single Champions Final at a neutral, NCFA-designated venue.

The new format replaces the league's earlier all-comers knockout bracket — popularly nicknamed "中国疯狂三月" ("Chinese March Madness") — which had been in place since the league's founding and allowed any of the 13 clubs, regardless of regular-season finish, to claim the title. Under the revised system, a club must first prove itself across the long campaign before it ever reaches the knockout rounds.

KEY: MP = Matches Played · W = Won · D = Drawn · L = Lost · GF = Goals For · GA = Goals Against · GD = Goal Difference · PTS = Points
■ Champions Stage qualification (Top 8) ■ Relegation zone

Final qualification and the formal Champions Stage draw will be confirmed by the NCFA at the conclusion of Matchday 24.