The opening ceremony of the 2025 Hunan Super League, or "Xiangchao," kicked off at the Changsha Helong Sports Center on the evening of September 7. Mao Weiming, deputy secretary of the CPC Hunan Provincial Committee and governor of the People's Government of Hunan Province, announced the start of Xiangchao.

Provincial leaders Wu Guiying, Zhang Yingchun, Zhang Jianfei, Jiang Difei, and Li Min attended, along with Qu Hai, secretary general of the provincial government.

Governor Mao announces the start of the 2025 Hunan Super League.

The 2025 Hunan Super League is scheduled to take place from September to December 2025, including the regular season and the knockout stage. Spanning 17 weeks, a total of 98 matches will be held at stadiums across Hunan's 13 cities and one prefecture. Matches will be scheduled on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, with the timing of each round's matches staggered. The regular season will be conducted in a single round-robin format, consisting of 13 rounds. Each team will play seven home games and six away games, or six home games and seven away games. The top eight teams based on points accumulated during the regular season will advance to the knockout stage.

The opening ceremony of the 2025 Hunan Super League.

Xiangchao highlights the idea of "joyful football, full public participation," targeting football enthusiasts aged 16 to 40. The competition regulations stipulate that each team must field no fewer than three high school student players simultaneously in every match, aiming at advancing Hunan's youth football training system and building the Hunan Super League as a hotbed for cultivating Hunan's next generation of football talents.

The Changsha team and the Loudi team compete fiercely at the opening match.

Throngs of people gathered at the Changsha Helong Sports Center to watch the super league on that evening. At the opening ceremony, 13 municipal and one prefectural teams paraded on the football field, waving their respective team flags, marking the official commencement of a grand football festival in Hunan. The opening match pitted Changsha against Loudi. After an intense match, Changsha team emerged victorious with a 2-0 win.

Xiangchao was said to have received sponsorship from the Hunan Chasing Financial Holdings Group and other entities.

Photos taken by Liu Shangwen.

This article is from the Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn. 

Translator: Yu Jiangjiang

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn