Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic () is a defunct Chinese football club. The team was based in Chongqing.
The club was founded in 1995 as Wuhan Qianwei before making their debut in the newly developed fully professional Chinese football league system where they started in the third tier within the 1995 league season. They would quickly rise up to the top tier and experience their greatest achievement of winning the 2000
Chinese FA Cup
The Chinese FA Cup (, abbreviated as CFA Cup) is the national knockout cup competition in China organized by the Chinese Football Association. Its current holders are Shandong Taishan, having beaten Shanghai Port in 2021 for a record seventh tit ...
and coming fourth within the league. In 2002, they came fourth place in the last season of the
Asian Cup Winners' Cup
The Asian Cup Winners' Cup was an association football competition run by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The competition was started in 1991 as a tournament for all the domestic cup winners from countries affiliated to the AFC. The winne ...
. After these achievements they struggled to replicate the same success and experienced their first relegation from the top tier in the 2006 league season. After gaining promotion in
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
back into the top tier they were unable to remain in the top flight and were relegated once more in the 2010 season. In 2014, they finished the season at the top of
Chinese League One
The Chinese Football Association China League (), also known as China League One or Chinese Jia League (中甲联赛), is the second level of professional football in China. Above League One is the Chinese Super League.
Prior to the formation of ...
(tier 2) division and won promotion to the
Chinese Super League
The Chinese Football Association Super League, commonly known as Chinese Super League or CSL, currently known as the China Ping An Chinese Football Association Super League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest tier of professional association ...
again. Between 2017 and 2021 the club was known as Chongqing Dangdai Lifan.
According to Forbes, in 2016, Chongqing was the 9th most valuable football team in China, with a team value of $76 million, and an estimated revenue of $17 million in 2015.
The club was dissolved on 24 May 2022.
History
Establishment in Wuhan
Wuhan Qianwei F.C. was founded in
Wuhan
Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei Province in the People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the ninth-most populous Chinese city an ...
,
Hubei Province
Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The prov ...
in early 1995 on the basis of the second team of Hubei WISCO, which had taken the vacant place in Jia B League created by the merger of Hubei Football Team (est. 1954) and Wuhan Football Team to form its parent team in the previous year, and was relegated to
China League Two
The Chinese Football Association Division Two League (Simplified Chinese: 中国足球协会乙级联赛), or China League Two, is the third tier league of the People's Republic of China. The league is under the auspices of the Chinese Football As ...
after that season.
In the 1995 season, Hubei Qianwei took part in the bottom level (tier-3)
China League Two
The Chinese Football Association Division Two League (Simplified Chinese: 中国足球协会乙级联赛), or China League Two, is the third tier league of the People's Republic of China. The league is under the auspices of the Chinese Football As ...
and finished fourth to gain promotion to the second division. In the second tier, they quickly received significant funding from the Ministry of Public Security along with the Huandao Group, a notable company in tourism industry based in
Hainan
Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...
, which in turn also saw the club change its name to Qianwei Huandao to represent their new stockholder. Qianwei Huandao tried to relocate their home ground in
Haikou
Haikou (; ), also spelled as Hoikow is the capital and most populous city of the Chinese province of Hainan. Haikou city is situated on the northern coast of Hainan, by the mouth of the Nandu River. The northern part of the city is on the ...
, the capital city of
Hainan
Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...
province, but the team finally chose to stay in
Wuhan
Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei Province in the People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the ninth-most populous Chinese city an ...
since there was no suitable stadium in Hainan to serve as the home ground. With significant investment coming into the team, they bought several former Chinese international players such as
Feng Zhigang
Feng Zhigang ( Chinese: 冯志刚; 27 February 1969 – 7 July 2011) was a Chinese football forward who played for China PR in the 1992 Asian Cup. In the aspect of club football, he played for Wuhan Hongtao K and Qianwei Huandao.
Playing care ...
and
Xu Tao
Xu or XU may refer to:
People and characters
* Xu (surname), one of two Chinese surnames ( or /), transliterated as Xu in English
* ǃXu, a name for the ǃKung group of Bushmen; may also refer to the ǃKung language or the ǃKung people
* ǃXu ...
to strengthen the squad. This soon paid off when the club won the second-tier league and promoted to the top tier at the end of the 1996 league season.
Move to Chongqing
In the top tier the owners decided that the club needed to affiliate itself with a major region that had a great football fan population, so they decided to move to the nearby city of Chongqing and chose the
Datianwan Stadium
Datianwan Stadium () is a multi-purpose stadium in Chongqing. Built in 1954 under the direction of He Long, Datianwan is the oldest multi-purpose stadium of its size in southwestern China. It is currently used mostly for football
Football i ...
as their new home ground. This was followed by more Chinese internationals such as Jiang Feng and
Han Jinming
Han Jinming (; born 28 February 1969) is a Chinese football coach and a former international midfielder who played for China in the 1996 Asian Cup. While in his club career his representation of Tianjin Sumsang saw him captain the team from 1993 ...
joining the team and ensuring the club stayed up in the tier one at the end of the season. Ensuring that the club remain the only team within the Chongqing region, the club went on to merge and essentially take over a club in the lower-level league,
Chongqing Hongyan
Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a municipality in Southwest China. The official abbreviation of the city, "" (), was approved by the State Coun ...
, after the 1999 season. This was then followed by a complete shift of the club ownership. Lifan Group, a local flagship company in automobile industry, 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
The Chinese FA Cup (, abbreviated as CFA Cup) is the national knockout cup competition in China organized by the Chinese Football Association. Its current holders are Shandong Taishan, having beaten Shanghai Port in 2021 for a record seventh tit ...
for the first time in the club's history. Chongqing Lifan would then be eligible to enter their first continental competition when they competed in the
2001–02 Asian Cup Winners' Cup
The 2001–02 Asian Cup Winners' Cup was the final season of association football competition run by the Asian Football Confederation specifically for its members cup holders.
First round
West Asia
''1 Al Salmiya withdrew''
East Asia
...
and with
Edson Tavares
Edson Araujo Tavares (born 10 June 1956 in Rio de Janeiro) is a Brazilian football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally m ...
as their new manager he would lead the club to a semi-finals position where the club lost 0:2 to Anyang Cheetahs before ending the competition in fourth after losing to
Al Sadd
Al Sadd Sports Club ( ar, نادي السد الرياضي, lit=Dam Sports Club) is a Qatari sports club based in the Al Sadd district of the city of Doha. It is best known for its association football team, which competes in th ...
by penalty kicks after a 0:0 regular-time draw in a third-place final game.
Miloš Hrstić
Miloš Hrstić (born 20 November 1955) is a Croatian football coach and former player. During his club career he played for HNK Rijeka, Deportivo de La Coruña and Olimpija Ljubljana. He earned ten caps for the Yugoslavia national team, and ...
as their new coach, however his appointment was a disaster and the club was relegated at the end of the season. 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 Shoking. 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
Xu Hong (; born May 14, 1968, in Dalian) is a retired Chinese football player and football manager. He was most recently the manager of Chinese Super League team Dalian Aerbin F.C. for 63 days before he had to resign on February 19, 2013, be ...
, 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. The club would decide to bring in a new manager and hired from within with former player
Wei Xin
Wei Xin (; born April 18, 1977, in Chongqing) is a Chinese football manager and former player who is the current manager of Fujian Broncos F.C. Before becoming a coach, he played professionally as a versatile defender or midfielder who predomin ...
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.
Dangdai era
On 26 June 2016,
Jiang Lizhang
Jiang Lizhang (; born October 27, 1981 in Fu'an) is a Chinese businessman who owns Granada CF in Spain's La Liga, having bought a controlling stake for over €37m. He is also a part-owner of the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves, having bought 5% of th ...
purchased 98.13% of
Granada CF
Granada Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. (), known simply as Granada, is a Spanish football club based in the city of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, that plays in the Segunda División, after being relegated from La Liga in the 2021 ...
, setting up an affiliation, which has seen
Feng Jing
Feng Jing (, born 15 January 1985) is a Chinese gymnast. Feng surprisingly won the gold in the men's individual All-around in the 2001 world championships, when China did not send its strongest team to the event. He was also part of the Chines ...
and Wang Zixiang go to the Spanish club, with Chongqing Lifan. On 5 January 2017, Jiang, alongside the Dangdai International Group, purchased 90% of Chongqing Lifan, renaming the club Chongqing Dangdai Lifan.
Throughout Chongqing Lifan's history they have built rivalries with Sichuan Quanxing,
Chengdu Blades
Chengdu Tiancheng F.C. () was a Chinese professional football club based in Chengdu, China who last played in the 26,000 seater Shuangliu Sports Center in the China League One division. The club was founded on 26 February 1996 and was formerly ...
and Chongqing F.C., whom they contested in regional derbies. The oldest of these rivalries was against Sichuan Quanxing, which was formed when the club moved to the neighbouring province of Chongqing and effectively created a local derby. With both clubs in the top tier representing two neighbouring provinces, a fierce local rivalry would form that reached its peak on 12 November 2003 in a vital league game for both teams to avoid relegation. Sichuan won 2–0 in a highly contentious game that saw Qiu Weiguo (邱卫国) from Chongqing and Marko Jovanović of Sichuan receive suspensions for their on-field behavior. This rivalry would come to end when Sichuan declared themselves defunct at the end of the 2005 league season; however, another Sichuan province club in Chengdu Blades soon took over the baton as local rivals. This was ignited on 14 April 2007 in a home league game for Chongqing Lifan that saw Chengdu win 1–0 as both teams looked to win promotion into the top tier that season. For several seasons these two clubs would fight in an intermittent rivalry until Chengdu were dissolved in 2015 after facing financial difficulties.
The Chongqing derby was contested by Chongqing Lifan and Chongqing F.C. as a local inner city rivalry. Hostilities were immediately started with the formation of Chongqing F.C. in 2010 when their owners proclaimed that the formation of their club would produce a "healthy Chongqing" football environment for the sport within the province, a term that was seen as an insult directed at Chongqing Lifan who were relegated from the top flight that season. After only one season both clubs would meet each other within the second division and had their first encounter in a league game with Chongqing F.C. playing at home as Chongqing Lifan won 4–1. The return fixture would see violence break out between the two set of fans as the rivalry intensified between the clubs. On 21 December 2013 the rivalry was cancelled when Chongqing F.C. was dissolved due to financial difficulties.
Some fans of Chongqing Lifan also regard Shijiazhuang Yongchang F.C. (a club in
Hebei
Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, and 0 ...
province) as a major rival due to the hostility between fanbases of these two clubs triggered by the transfer of Wang Dong from Shandong Tengding to Chongqing Lifan in 2014. Wang was hated by Yongchang fans because of his previously unfriendly words against another Hebei team
Hebei Zhongji
Hebei Football Club () is a professional Chinese football club that participates in the Chinese Super League division under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is based in Langfang, Hebei and their home stadium is the L ...
Klaus Schlappner
Klaus Schlappner (born 22 May 1940) is a football manager. He is predominantly remembered for his first spell with SV Waldhof Mannheim, when he led them to the 2. Bundesliga title and several seasons in the Bundesliga as well as being the firs ...
Edson Tavares
Edson Araujo Tavares (born 10 June 1956 in Rio de Janeiro) is a Brazilian football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally m ...
(2002–03)
*
Milos Hrstic
Milos or Melos (; el, label=Modern Greek, Μήλος, Mílos, ; grc, Μῆλος, Mêlos) is a volcanic Greek island in the Aegean Sea, just north of the Sea of Crete. Milos is the southwesternmost island in the Cyclades group.
The ''Venus d ...
Viorel Hizo
Viorel Doru Hizo (born 6 February 1947) is a Romanian football manager.
Coaching career
Hizo coached several top teams in Romania, his first job as head coach was with his hometown club Inter Sibiu capturing the Balkans Cup title in 1991. H ...
Xu Hong
Xu Hong (; born May 14, 1968, in Dalian) is a retired Chinese football player and football manager. He was most recently the manager of Chinese Super League team Dalian Aerbin F.C. for 63 days before he had to resign on February 19, 2013, be ...
(2006)
*
Wei Xin
Wei Xin (; born April 18, 1977, in Chongqing) is a Chinese football manager and former player who is the current manager of Fujian Broncos F.C. Before becoming a coach, he played professionally as a versatile defender or midfielder who predomin ...
(2007–09)
*
Arie Haan
Arend "Arie" Haan (; born 16 November 1948) is a Dutch football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He scored 6 goals in 35 matches for the Netherlands national team of the 1970s. At club level, he enjoyed a successful career ...
(2009)
* Wei Xin ''(interim)'' (2009–10)
* Li Shubin (2010)
* Wei Xin ''(interim)'' (2010)
* Liu Jingbiao (2011)
*
Lawrie McKinna
Lawrie McKinna (born 8 July 1961) is a Scottish-Australian former football player, coach, and former Mayor of Gosford City Council.
In 2012, McKinna stood for election as an independent for City of Gosford. Lawrie was successful in gaining a sea ...
(2012)
*
Tang Yaodong
Tang Yaodong (; born 17 February 1962 in Shenyang, China), is a Chinese football manager and former Chinese international footballer. He mainly played as a centre forward for Liaoning FC.
Playing career
Club career
Tang Yaodong began his footb ...
Paulo Bento
Paulo Jorge Gomes Bento (; born 20 June 1969) is a Portuguese football manager and former player.
A defensive midfielder with tackling ability and workrate as his main assets, he played for two of the major three teams in his country, amassin ...
Jordi Cruyff
Johan Jordi Cruijff (anglicised to Cruyff; born 9 February 1974) is a football coach and former player. He is the son of former player and manager Johan Cruyff.
As a footballer, Cruyff played from 1992 through to 2010, including periods with ...
China League One
The Chinese Football Association China League (), also known as China League One or Chinese Jia League (中甲联赛), is the second level of professional football in China. Above League One is the Chinese Super League.
Prior to the formation of ...
:Winners (2): 1996, 2014
Cup
*
Chinese FA Cup
The Chinese FA Cup (, abbreviated as CFA Cup) is the national knockout cup competition in China organized by the Chinese Football Association. Its current holders are Shandong Taishan, having beaten Shanghai Port in 2021 for a record seventh tit ...
:Winners (1): 2000
*
Chinese FA Super Cup
The Chinese FA Super Cup (), formerly named Chinese Football Super Cup (), is a pre-season football competition held before the season begins in China. It is a Chinese football championship contested by the winners of top division of Profession ...
:Runner-up (1): 2000
Youth
*U19 Adidas Youth League Champions
:Winners (1): 2007
Results
;All-time league rankings
''As of 1 April 2020''.
* In final group stage.
* Merged with Yunnan Hongta so that the club could stay at top level.
* No relegation.
* Two Super League clubs were involved in match-fixing scandal and relegated to League One, so Chongqing could stay at top level.
* Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, matches of the 2020 season were changed to a 2-stage format. Chongqing finished at the 3rd position in the 8-team Suzhou group (W7, D3, L4) and entered the Suzhou championship playoff in the second stage, where it eventually finished at the 6th position. No game was played at the home ground. No attendance was allowed in the group stage and 5 out of 6 playoff games had limited permitted attendance.
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