Chongqing Lifan F.C.
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| Full name |
Chongqing Lifan Football Club 重庆力帆足球俱乐部 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Founded |
19 August 2000 as Chongqing Lifan | ||
| Ground | Fuling Stadium | ||
| Capacity | 22,000 | ||
| Chairman | Yin Mingshan (尹明善) | ||
| Manager | Wang Baoshan (王宝山) | ||
| League | China League One | ||
| 2013 | 4th | ||
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Chongqing Lifan (simplified Chinese: 重庆力帆; traditional Chinese: 重慶力帆; pinyin: Chóngqìng Lìfān) is a professional Chinese football club which currently plays in the Chinese League One division. They play their home games at the 58,680 seater Chongqing Olympic Sports Center in Chongqing and are owned by the Chongqing based Lifan Group, which manufactures motorcycles, cars and spare parts. Originally called Qianwei (Vanguard) Wuhan and formed in 1995 to take part in the recently developed fully professional Chinese football league system. They would quickly rise up to the top tier and experience their greatest achievement of winning the 2000 Chinese FA Cup and coming fourth within the league, however since then they have struggled to replicate the same success and have twice been relegated from the top tier in their history.
History
Formation
The club's predecessor was called Qianwei and were originally created after Hubei FC and Wuhan Steelworks merged, which saw a free space available within the football league. After gaining financial backing from Hubei investors the new club would take part in the recently developed fully professional Chinese football league system where in the 1995 campaign they would take part at the bottom of the Chinese league pyramid in the third tier and come fourth within the league as well as gaining promotion to the second division.[1] Within the second tier they would quickly gain significant funding from the Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China and the Huandao Group, which in turn also saw the club change its name to Qianwei Huandao to represent this. With significant investment coming into the team they would buy several former Chinese internationals such as Feng Zhigang and Xu Tao as well as several further players from Wuhan Steelworks to strengthen the squad. This would quickly pay off and the club would win the second tier title and promotion into the top tier for the first time at the end of the 1996 league season.[2]
Chongqing
In the top tier the owners decided that the club needed to affiliate itself with a major reign and would decide to move nearby to Chongqing and into the Datianwan Stadium. This was followed by more Chinese internationals such as Jiang Feng and Han Jinming joining the team and ensuring the club stayed up at the end of the season. Ensuring that the club remain the only team within the reign the club would go on to merge and essentially take over lower league club Chongqing Hongyan the following season. This was then followed by a complete takeover of the entire club by the Lifan Group who bought the club for 55,800,000 yuan on 19 August 2000 and renamed the club Chongqing Lifan. While all of this was happening the club's manager Lee Jang-Soo was ensuring that the club would gradually improve each successive season and provide the club with their greatest achievement of winning the 2000 Chinese FA Cup for the first time in the club's history. Chongqing Lifan would then be eligible to enter their first continental competition when they competitied in the 2001–02 Asian Cup Winners' Cup and with Edson Tavares as their new manager he would lead the club to a semi-finals position where the club lost to Anyang Cheetahs before ending the competition in fourth after losing to Al Sadd in a third place match.[3]
Merger with Yunnan Hongta
See also Yunnan Hongta
In the 2003 league season Chongqing Lifan had brought in Miloš Hrstić as their new coach, however his appointment was a disaster and the club was relegated at the end of the season.[4] With the club desperate to remain within the top tier they would buy Yunnan Hongta's registration and merge the clubs' senior teams together allowing Chongqing Lifan to remain in the top division. Surprisingly the club would actually profit from the merger when several of the surplus players from both teams would then go on to gain investment from the Hunan Corun Group and buy Chongqing Lifan's second division registration for 20,000,000 yuan to then form Hunan Xiangjun.[5] Back on the field the club would bring in Yu Dongfeng as their new manager in the 2004 league season, however because it was an expansion season the club would stagnate at the bottom of the league, safe in the knowledge that there was no relegation that season. With no relegation again in the 2005 league season there was no improvement within the team despite the change in management with Ma Lin coming in. With relegation reinstated in the 2006 league season the club brought in another change of management with Xu Hong, however for the third straight season in a row the club finished bottom of the league and were relegated at the end of the season.[6] The club would decide to bring in a new manager and hired from within with former player Wei Xin chosen. The move would pay-off when on his second season the club won promotion back into the top tier when Chongqing came second at the end of the 2008 league season.
Name changes
- 1995: Qianwei (Vanguard) Wuhan (前卫武汉)
- 1995: Qianwei (Vanguard) FC (前卫俱乐部)
- 1996–98: Qianwei (Vanguard) Huandao (前卫寰岛)
- 1999-00: Chongqing Longxin (重庆隆鑫)
- 2000–02: Chongqing Lifan (重庆力帆)
- 2003: Chongqing Lifan Xinganjue (重庆力帆新感觉)
- 2004: Chongqing Qiche (重庆奇伡)
- 2005–08: Chongqing Lifan (重庆力帆)
- 2009–: Chongqing Shixian Taibai (重庆诗仙太白)
-
-1995
Qianwei FC
(前卫俱乐部) -
1996–2000
Qianwei Huandao, Chongqing Longxin
(前卫寰岛), (重庆隆鑫) -
2000–current
Chongqing Lifan
(重庆力帆)
Results
- As of the end of 2013 season
All-time League rankings
| Season | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Position | 4 | 1 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 11 | 6 | 13 1 | 12 2 | 14 2 | 15 | 4 | 2 | 16 3 | 15 | 8 | 5 | 4 |
- ^1 merged with Yunnan Hongta so that the club could stay at top level.
- ^2 no relegation.
- ^3 Two Super League clubs were involved in match-fixing scandal and relegated to League One, so Chongqing could stay at top level.
Current squad
As of 11 March 2013[7]
Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Coaching staff
| Position | Staff |
|---|---|
| Head coach |  Wang Baoshan |
| Assistant coaches | Xu Jianye Zhang Hao |
| Goalkeeping coach |  Nico de Bree |
| Team physician | Yin Xijun Zhang Jian |
Source: Club's Official Site
Former coaches
Klaus Schlappner (1996-1997)
Lee Jang-Soo (1998-2001)
Edson Tavares (2002-2003)
Milos Hrstic (2003)- Yu Dongfeng (2004)
Viorel Hizo (2004-2005)- Ma Lin (2005)
- Xu Hong (2006)
- Wei Xin (2007-2009)
- Arie Haan (2009)
- Wei Xin (interim) (2009-2010)
- Li Shubin (2010)
- Liu Jingbiao (2011)
- Tang Yaodong (2012)
Honours
League
- Jia B Champions: 1996
Cup
- Chinese FA Cup: 2000
Youth
- U19 Adidas Youth League Champions: 2007
References
- ↑ "China League 1995". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. 19 June 2003.
- ↑ "China League 1996". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. 19 June 2003.
- ↑ "Asian Club Competitions 2001/02". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. 21 February 2004.
- ↑ "China 2003". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation.
- ↑ ""足球湘军"加速本土化 海南猛练体能". Sina Corp.
- ↑ "China 2006". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. 8 March 2007.
- ↑ 2012赛季中甲联赛重庆力帆球员完全名单 (Chinese)
External links
- Chongqing Lifan website
- Lifan Thailand website
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