Hangzhou Football League: Free Entry for All Fans

On the morning of December 31, the 2026 Hangzhou City Football League and the 3rd Hangzhou Football Association Cup press conference was held. The reporter learned that the event will open at the Shangcheng Sports Center Stadium on January 17, 2026, and end in mid-to-late March, with 44 exciting duels taking place in more than 2 months. It is worth mentioning that players who perform well in the game will be selected for the Hangzhou representative team to compete in next year’s Zhejiang City Football League.

As a mass football brand event independently created by Hangzhou City, the Hangzhou City Football League is hosted by the Hangzhou Municipal People’s Government and co-organized by the Municipal Sports Bureau, Municipal Commerce Bureau, Municipal Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism Bureau and various district and county (city) governments. It aims to create an integration of “sports platform, national singing, economic benefit, and city enhancement” Platform, the event encourages and supports localities to carefully create a “football carnival” that integrates local cultural and tourism characteristics, intangible cultural heritage, and agricultural products markets around home games, so as to achieve “one game, activate a neighborhood, and ignite the characteristics of one area”, and use the event as a medium to stimulate cultural and tourism consumption, display regional image, and condense the strong momentum of the city’s spirit.

At present, the team selection work for various districts, counties (cities) in Hangzhou has been fully launched, and 13 districts, counties (cities) have released hero posts. Registration will end on January 4, 2026. The competition is divided into two stages: group stage and knockout stage – the group stage adopts a single round-robin system within the group. The 13 teams will be divided into Group A (7 teams) and Group B (6 teams). The top 4 teams in each group advance to the knockout stage; the knockout stage adopts a cross single-elimination elimination system until the 1st to 4th place in this competition is determined. The schedule is designed to take into account fairness, enjoyment and public benefit. Most games are arranged on weekends to ensure the quality of the games and the popularity of the games to the greatest extent, so that there are games every week.

This event adheres to the “grassroots” and “social” nature, and the qualifications of participating athletes are strictly tied to Hangzhou household registration, social security or student status, ensuring that it is “Hangzhou people’s own league.” However, members of high-level football teams in colleges and universities and college students who take the football test alone cannot register. At the same time, in order to increase a certain degree of competitiveness and enjoyment, the event allows former professional players who meet one of the conditions of household registration, social security or student status to participate, provided that they have retired for four years, and each team is limited to 4 players. This move is intended to cultivate a sense of community belonging through strict local qualifications, and to establish municipal representative teams through selection, provide an upward path for amateur players, build a sustainable development path from “national participation” to “elite selection”, expand Hangzhou’s football population base, and prosper the entire city’s football cultural ecology.

In addition, this league will fully demonstrate the wisdom and warmth of Hangzhou’s technology empowerment. In the group stage, the people-friendly policy of “scan the QR code to make an appointment and watch the game for free” will be fully implemented. This electronic ticket stub is not only an admission voucher, but also the key to unlocking the “ticket stub economy”. You can enjoy multiple discounts and truly “benefit the people through competition.” It is reported that the Municipal Commerce Bureau will focus on the “Sports+” full-chain consumption promotion mechanism, create consumption scenes through on-site markets, increase enthusiasm for watching games through second viewing points, and issue consumer coupons to drive consumer enthusiasm; the Municipal Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism Bureau will upgrade the “Hangzhou Culture and Tourism Thirteen Invitations” privileges, expand coverage and service content, launch special cultural tourism products, and create a “Hangzhou Trip” brand and exclusive space.