Jiangsu Sainty F.C.

Jiangsu Sainty
江苏舜天
Full name Jiangsu Sainty Football Club
江苏舜天足球俱乐部
Nickname(s) Sainty, Bloody Jasmine
Founded 1994.03.28
Ground Nanjing Olympic Sports Center, Nanjing
Jiangsu, China
(Capacity: 60,000)
Chairman Liu Jun 刘军
Manager Dragan Okuka
League Chinese Super League
2011 4th
Home colours
Away colours

Jiangsu Sainty F.C. (Chinese: 江苏舜天; pinyin: Jiāngsū Shùntiān) is a professional Chinese football club based in Nanjing, who currently participates in the Chinese Super League while playing their home matches in the 60,000 seater Nanjing Olympic Sports Center. The team was originally founded in 1958 as Jiangsu Provincial Team while the current professional football team was established on March 28, 1994. They were also one of the founding members of the first fully professional 1994 Chinese league season, however they would struggle within the league until they won premotion back into the top tier at the end of the 2008 league season. From then on they would go on to achieve their best ever league position when they came fourth at the end of the 2011 Chinese Super League season.

Contents

History

The club was originally founded in April 1958 as Jiangsu Provincial Team by the local government and would take part in the 1959 National Games of the People's Republic of China where they came twelfth. They would then join the top tier of the gradually expanding Chinese football league system in 1960 where they came nineteenth out of a possible twenty-five.[1] By 1963 the league had expanded to thirty-nine teams and the Chinese Football Association were looking to only have twenty teams for next seasons league system. Jiangsu would unfortunately finish seventh within the group stages, which saw them relegated from the league system.[2] In 1964 they would not take part in any of the divisions but returned to play in the second tier in 1965 where they came seventh in the group stages.[3] The Chinese Cultural Revolution would see the league halted for several seasons but when it officially returned in 1973 Jiangsu would enter the league back into the top tier where they finished the league in eleventh.[4] Jiangsu's time in the top tier did not last very long and by the 1978 league season they would find themselves relegated to the second division at the end of the season.[5] For the next several years Jiangsu would remain a second tier club except for a brief period in 1988, however in 1992 they would have brief revival when they won the second tier title and guaranteed premotion to the first fully professional 1994 league season nomatter what would happen in the 1993 league season.[6]

On March 28, 1994 the club would gain sponsorship and change their name to Jiangsu Maint to comply with the requirements to take part in the first fully professional 1994 Chinese league season, however they would struggle with professionalism on and off the field, first they would be relegated at the end of the season and then due to the stricter operational costs the club would financially struggle before losing their sponsorship.[7] They would, however gain some financial support from several major Chinese businesses such as Jiangsu TV, Jinling Petrochemical Company benzene plant, several Jiangsu tobacco companies as well as some international investment companies came in 1996, while the club changed their name to Jiangsu Jiajia to represent this. Even though Jiangsu were able to gain some financial stability they were still relegated to the third tier at the end of the 1996 league season but only spent one season in there after they won the division league title in 1997.[8] On January 7, 2000 the Jiangsu Sainty International Group decided to take over the club and changed the clubs name to Jiangsu Sainty.[9] The new owners would not get off to the best of starts when it was discovered they were unable to control some of their players and coaches from taking bribes, a game in the 2001 league season against Chengdu Wuniu where they lost 4-2 was highlighted and the offending participants were banned for a year while the club had three months to reform and re-apply for a CFA playing license.[10] After promissing to clean-up the club the team would linger in the second second tier for several years until they brought in Pei Encai to manage the team and win the division title at the end of the 2008 league season.[11]

Names

Home Stadium

Jiangsu Sainty has been playing its game at Nanjing Olympics Stadium since 2006 after playing at Wutaishan Stadium for nearly 30 years. The Nanjing Olympics Stadium, which seats 62,000 people, is the most capacious stadium in Nanjing city. It was completed in 2005 for 10th Chinese National Games. Nanjing Olympics Stadium is a big part of Nanjing Olympic Sports Center that located 7 kilometers southwest to Nanjing downtown.

Results

All-Time League rankings

Season 1960 1961 1962 1963 1965 1973 1974 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993
Division 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2
Position 19 10 1 19 7 1 7 1 11 21 9 1 15 14 10 7 12 7 13 7 1 4 5 14 5 5 6 1 2 5 1
Season 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Division 1 2 2 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1
Position 12 7 12 1 4 9 3 5 5 4 6 5 6 3 1 10 11 4

no league game in 1959, 1966–1972, 1975; Jiangsu did not compete in 1964;

Current squad

As of 29 March 2011[12]

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
1 GK Deng Xiaofei
2 MF Cao Rui
3 DF Eleílson (vice captain)
5 DF Zhou Yun
7 FW Tan Si
8 MF Liu Jianye
9 MF Lu Bofei (captain)
10 FW Cristian Dănălache
11 FW Du Wenhui
12 DF Ai Zhibo
13 MF Zhang Bo
14 FW Tang Miao
15 FW Ge Wei
16 DF Qiu Bing
17 FW Qu Cheng
18 MF Li Chi
20 FW Sun Ke
No. Position Player
21 MF Paolo de la Haza
23 DF Ren Hang
24 MF Ji Xiang
25 MF Liu Qing
26 GK Guan Zhen
27 MF Wang Guanyu
28 DF Yang Xiaotian
30 DF Tang Jing
31 MF Qian Zhelong
32 GK Liu Jun
33 DF Xiong Tao
34 MF Wang Jie
37 DF Liu Yu
38 FW Aleksandar Jevtić
39 DF Kamoliddin Tadjiev
40 GK Lu Zheyu

2012 Season Transfers (Winter)

In:

No. Position Player

Out:

No. Position Player

Coaching staff

Position Staff
Head coach Dragan Okuka
Assistant coaches Yang Chen
Liu Pingyu
Goalkeepers coach Li Zhigao
Team physician Pan Qinghua
Zhu Yuecheng

Source: Sina.com

Former managers

  • Liu Pingyu (1994–1995)
  • Wei Ritun (1996)
  • Hu Zhigang (1997)
  • Yang Yumin (1998–1999)
  • Gu Mingchang (2000)
  • Zeljko Banjac (2000)
  • Leonid Koltun (2000–2001)
  • Bosko Antic (2001)
  • Liu Pingyu (2002)
  • Leonid Koltun (2002–2003)

Famous players

References

External links