Hangzhou Greentown Football Club (simplified Chinese: 杭州绿城; traditional Chinese: 杭州綠城; pinyin: Hángzhōu Lǜchéng) is a Chinese football club who play at 51,000 seater Hangzhou Huanglong Stadium in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. Founded on January 14, 1998 the club's main investor is the Greentown China Holdings Limited company. The team currently play in the Chinese Super League after winning promotion in 2006 and their current manager is Yang Ji.
History
Zhejiang Greentown Football Club Co., Ltd. was officially established on January 14, 1998 with a capital of 16,000,000 Yuan and Zeng Leming was appointed as their general manager. Greentown Real Estate Company, Hangzhou Qiantang Real Estate Company, Zhejiang University and Zhejiang Provincial Football Association all participated in the creation as well as the registration of the club.[1] The company would go on to form a youth team before finally creating a senior team on January 22, 1999 to take part in the third tier with Bao Yingfu as their first head coach. They wouldn't wait long to show their ambition when they would make the play-offs in 2000 before losing to Tianjin Lifei.[2] Still determined to win promotion the club decided to buy the first team of Jilin Aodong as well as their position in Chinese Football Association Jia League on November 23, 2000 for 25,000,000 Yuan, in time for the beginning of the 2001 league season. Under the new general manager Shen Qiang the club brought in new sponsors and Gu Mingchang as the new Head coach, however during this period the club couldn't win promotion to the top tier and the Chairman Song Weiping expressed his disappointment of the team. Song Weiping would soon discover that the reason for his clubs disappointing results when it was discovered that several of his players and coaches were taking bribes, with a 6–0 defeat against Changchun Yatai in the 2001 league season being highlighted, which saw the offending participants banned for a year while the club had three months to reform and re-apply for a CFA playing license.[3] This would see the club would go through several management changes as well as a significant ownership shift, which saw Song Weiping's company Greentown China Holdings Limited take a 96% share of the team for 20,000,000 Yuan in 2005 while Zhejiang University held on to 4%.[1]
Under Wang Zheng as their Head coach the team would start to generally push for promotion, eventually achieving it at the end of the 2006 league season when they came second in the division.[4] The club often found themselves fighting off relegation and would bring in several managers to alleviate the problem, however this wasn't enough during the 2009 league season and the club found themselves in the relegation zone at the end of the season. Surprisingly the club were allowed to stay within the 2010 Chinese Super League after it was discovered that Chengdu Blades and Guangzhou FC were guilty of match-fixing.[5] After gaining a reprieve from relegation the club went on a spending spree by signing several established Chinese internationals such as Du Wei, Li Yan and Wang Song.[6] The signings seemed to work and the clubs results significantly improved throughout the 2010 league campaign, which saw the club achieve their best ever finish of fourth and a chance to play within the AFC Champions League for the first time.[7]
Name history
- 2002 Renamed to Zhejiang Greentown (浙江绿城)
- 2003 Renamed to Zhejiang Sanhua Greentown (浙江三花绿城)
- 2004 Renamed to Zhejiang Greentown (浙江绿城)
- 2006 Renamed to Zhejiang Bebei Greentown (浙江巴贝绿城房产)
- 2007 Renamed to Zhejiang Greentown (浙江绿城房产)
- 2009 Renamed to Hangzhou Greentown (杭州绿城)
- 2010 Renamed to Hangzhou Nabel Greentown (杭州诺贝尔绿城)
- 2011 Renamed to Hangzhou Greentown (杭州绿城)
Honours
League
Youth Team
U-15 Team
International friendlies
- On 26 July 2009, Manchester United visited the Dragon Stadium and played a friendly against Hangzhou Greentown as part of their pre-season Asian tour.[8] Manchester United won by 8 goals to 2.
- On 16 July 2011, Arsenal visited the Meihu Stadium and played a friendly against Hangzhou Greentown as part of their pre-season Asian tour.[9] The game was drawn 1–1.
Results
All-time League rankings
As of the end of 2014 season.[10][11]
Key
|
|
- Pld = Played
- W = Games won
- D = Games drawn
- L = Games lost
- F = Goals for
- A = Goals against
- Pts = Points
- Pos = Final position
|
- DNQ = Did Not Qualify
- DNE = Did Not Enter
- NH = Not Held
- - = Does Not Exist
- R1 = Round 1
- R2 = Round 2
- R3 = Round 3
- R4 = Round 4
|
- F = Final
- SF = Semi-finals
- QF = Quarter-finals
- R16 = Round of 16
- Group = Group stage
- GS2 = Second Group stage
- QR1 = First Qualifying Round
- QR2 = Second Qualifying Round
- QR3 = Third Qualifying Round
|
Current squad
As of 5 March 2015 [12]
First team
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Reserve squad
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. |
|
Position |
Player
|
| 36 |
 |
FW |
Song Haiwang
|
| 37 |
|
MF |
Shen Jin
|
| 38 |
|
DF |
Zhao Yuan
|
| 39 |
|
MF |
Wei Zhaokun
|
| 40 |
|
DF |
Shi Tangxian
|
| 42 |
|
GK |
Liu Chang
|
| 43 |
|
MF |
Wu Wei
|
| 44 |
|
DF |
Liu Jing |
|
|
| No. |
|
Position |
Player
|
| 45 |
|
MF |
Liu Yi
|
| 46 |
|
MF |
Li Chenglong
|
| 47 |
|
DF |
Wen Junjie
|
| 48 |
|
FW |
Gao Huaze
|
| 49 |
|
DF |
Tong Lei
|
| 50 |
|
DF |
Xu Jizu
|
| 51 |
|
DF |
Xie Deshun |
|
Out on loan
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. |
|
Position |
Player
|
| |
 |
MF |
Bubacarr Trawally (to Yanbian Changbaishan)
|
| |
|
MF |
Wang Zhipeng (to Yanbian Changbaishan)
|
| |
|
DF |
Chen Xiaohan (to Baotou Nanjiao)
|
| |
|
MF |
Liu Heng (to Baotou Nanjiao) |
|
|
| No. |
|
Position |
Player
|
| |
|
DF |
Sun Zheng'ao (to Shenzhen F.C.)
|
| |
|
FW |
Zhang Xiang (to Lijiang Jiayunhao)
|
| |
|
GK |
Fan Jinming (to Lijiang Jiayunhao) |
|
Coaching staff
| Position |
Staff |
|---|
| Head coach |
 Philippe Troussier |
| Assistant coach |
 Guglielmo Arena |
| Goalkeeping coach |
 Ica |
| Fitness coach / Team performance |
Cedric Roger
Bruno Inara
December 2014 Fabien Bossuet & Harzi Taoufik |
| Physiotherapist |
 Yoshimune Shimamura |
| U-20 team coach |
Akira Muto |
| U-18 team coach |
Nobuhiro Ishizaki |
| Team physician |
Nie Lianjun
Liu Peimao |
Managers
- Bao Yingfu (1999–00)
- Gu Mingchang (2001)
Bobby Houghton (2002–03)- Li Bing (2003–04)
- Wang Zheng (2004–07)
- Zhou Suian (May 15, 2007–07), (2008–Sept 20, 2009)
- Wu Jingui (Sept 20, 2009–Dec 31, 2011)
- Takeshi Okada (Dec 15, 2011–Nov 5, 2013)
- Yang Ji (Nov 5, 2013–Dec 2, 2014)
- Philippe Troussier (Dec 2, 2014–)
See also
- Yanbian FC
- Hangzhou Sanchao
- Great Wall Cup - China's largest international youth football tournament
References
External links
