Hang Yuan Football Club (; also spelled Hang Yuen) is a professional

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 means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

club based in New Taipei, Taiwan that competes in the Taiwan Football Premier League. The club was previously known as Air Source Development and is currently affiliated with

Fu Jen Catholic University Fu Jen Catholic University (FJU, FJCU or Fu Jen; or ) is a private Catholic university in Xinzhuang, New Taipei City, Taiwan. The university was founded in 1925 in Beijing at the request of Pope Pius XI and re-established in Taiwan in 1961 at ...

. Hang Yuan was the first Taiwanese team to take part in the

AFC Cup The AFC Cup is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Under its current rules, the competition is played primarily between clubs from nations that did not receive direct qualifying s ...

group stage.

History

Intercity Football League era

The club formed as Air Source Development FC and first entered the

Intercity Football League Intercity Football League () was the top-ranked division in the Taiwanese football (soccer) league run by Chinese Taipei Football Association (CTFA), run from 2007 until 2016. From 2017, it was replaced by the Taiwan Football Premier League. His ...

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

. The club struggled in its early years, regularly having to play in qualification rounds in order to preserve its top flight status. In 2013, the club finished 7th of 8 teams, picking up only 7 points. Though it won the next season's qualification tournament, it still finished with the same points tally next season, albeit at an improved 6th place due to Chiayi County F.C. finishing rock bottom with 0 points. They avoided the preliminary round for the 2015–16 season, but it proved to be their least successful season yet, as they followed Chiayi County in finishing bottom of the table with 0 points.

Taiwan Football Premier League

For the newly revamped

2017 Taiwan Football Premier League The 2017 Taiwan Football Premier League (TFPL) was the first season of the Taiwan Football Premier League since it replaced the Intercity Football League following the 2016 season. It was contested by 8 clubs. Taichung City Dragon, who partic ...

, Air Source Development changed their name to Hang Yuan F.C. and enlisted the help of

to improve the team's standard. This saw an immediate improvement, as Hang Yuan finished 4th in the league phase of the new top-flight structure in Taiwan. This finish allowed them to compete in the 3rd place play-off against

Hasus TSU F.C. Land Home NTUS F.C., or National Taiwan University of Sport Football Team (), is a university-made football club based in Taichung, Taiwan, attached to National Taiwan University of Sport The National Taiwan University of Sport (NTUS; ) is ...

Over two legs, Hang Yuan ran out 5-2 aggregate winners to finish 3rd in the inaugural TFPL season. Due to the failures of Taipower and Tatung to obtain

AFC AFC may stand for: Organizations * Action for Children, a UK children's charity * AFC Enterprises, the franchisor of Popeye's Chicken and Biscuits * Africa Finance Corporation, a pan-African multilateral development finance institution * A ...

Club Licences, Hang Yuan were granted Taiwan's place in the

2018 AFC Cup The 2018 AFC Cup was the 15th edition of the AFC Cup, Asia's secondary club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya won the title for the third consecutive year, defeating Altyn Asyr in the fin ...

Group Stage, the first club from the country to do so. Signing

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

international and former

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

midfielder Jean-Marc Alexandre, the team entered into a group with

Benfica de Macau The House of Sport Lisboa e Benfica in Macau (), simply known as Benfica de Macau, is a Macau, Macanese professional association football, football team that currently competes in the Liga de Elite. They are the five-time champions of the leagu ...

, and North Korean clubs April 25 Sports Club and Hwaebul. A close fought 3-2 defeat to Benfica de Macau was swiftly followed by a heavy 5-1 loss to April 25.

Current squad

Continental record

* ''Hang Yuan's score listed first''

External links