Basketball Association New Rule: Teams With Wage Arrears Exceeding One Month Will Immediately Lose CBA Promotion Eligibility

The Chinese Basketball Association officially released the "2027 Professional League Promotion and Relegation Regulations and Implementation Plan" on September 10, clarifying the promotion and relegation playoff rules between the CBA and NBL for 2027. The key change is that the bottom two teams in the CBA regular season and the top two teams in the NBL, four teams in total, will participate in the playoffs. The winners of the two series can only obtain qualification for next season's CBA league admission evaluation after passing a pre-season assessment.

Pre-season assessment becomes a mandatory threshold

Teams participating in the promotion and relegation playoffs must first pass the "pre-season assessment." For CBA teams, if a team is disqualified from the current season by the Chinese Basketball Association, its results for the season are considered invalid, or it has major wage arrears or breach-of-contract issues involving unpaid salaries and compensation to players or club-related personnel for more than one month, it will directly lose its qualification to participate in the next CBA season. In other words, it will no longer be eligible to take part in the promotion and relegation playoffs, but it can still participate in the next NBL league admission evaluation.

NBL clubs will also lose playoff eligibility if they meet any of the following conditions: ranking above 80% in the youth team participation points system, having participated for fewer than two consecutive seasons, seriously violating relevant Chinese Basketball Association regulations, or being in a province (region or municipality) that already has two CBA league teams and being determined by the league organizer to seriously harm the reputation of professional league development.

Wage arrears become a key focus of scrutiny

The new regulations list "major wage arrears" as one of the circumstances that directly result in disqualification, and clearly state that "more than one month" is the triggering threshold. This means that whether it is a CBA or NBL team, if it has salary payment arrears exceeding one month involving players or club-related personnel, its promotion and relegation pathway will be closed. By placing wage arrears alongside competition eligibility and the validity of results, the association has signaled stronger supervision of club financial compliance and the protection of players' rights and interests.