Shenzhen F.C.

Shenzhen Football Club () is a Chinese professional football club that competes in the Chinese Super League. The team is based in Shenzhen, Guangdong and their home stadium is the Shenzhen Universiade Sports Centre that has a seating capacity of 60,334. Their majority shareholder is Property Development company the Kaisa Group who took over the club on April 12, 2016.

The club was founded on January 26, 1994, and was known as ''Shenzhen FC'' while they started at the bottom of the Chinese football pyramid in the third tier. After successive league title wins in the third and second tier of the professional football leagues, they were promoted to the top tier in the 1996 Chinese Jia-A League season. After only one season they were relegated, however they quickly regained promotion and started to establish themselves within the league before they won the rebranded 2004 Chinese Super League title, making them the first club to win all three divisions within the Chinese league pyramid. Since this achievement the club have struggled to match the same success and after 14 years experienced relegation to the second tier at the end of 2011 Chinese Super League season.

History

Early club era

Shenzhen Football Club was founded on 26 January 1994 by former Chinese players that included Rong Zhixing and Zeng Xuelin after the Chinese Football Association had allowed full professionalism and private ownership throughout their football league system. In an attempt for the City of Shenzhen to gain their first professional football team the club decided that the best way to gain funding was through memberships that included 100 corporate members and 300 individuals before changing the ownership into shareholdings. With Hu Zhigang as their first ever head coach and with players from all over the country, the club won two consecutive promotions and championships before entering the top tier of Chinese football after only two seasons, a remarkable feat named "Shenzhen speed" by the locals.

The club's first foray in the top tier, however was not a success and they were immediately relegated at the end of the 1996 campaign. In January 1997, Ping An Insurance took over the club and renamed it to "Shenzhen Ping'an". With this new ownership the club immediately won back promotion to the top tier after coming runners-up within their division. Once again the team struggled with relegation, however South Korean football legend Cha Bum-Kun was appointed as the club's first ever foreign head coach in the summer of 1998. Cha consolidated the club's status within the top tier with two successful relegation escapes. Meanwhile, the club made a long-term combined signing of 14 hot prospects from Tianjin Locomotive's 1st team as fresh blood, among them included future prospects Li Weifeng and Li Yi.

At the start of the 2000 season on March 27, newly appointed head coach the eccentric Brazilian Edson Tavares caught six players Peng Weiguo, Chen Yongqiang, Zhang Jun, Sun Gang, Wang Chao and Yao Li with prostitutes in the team hotel. This internal incident was leaked to the media becoming an open scandal, however the club claimed inconsistencies with the story, nevertheless the players involved had to make a public apology while the club relieved Tavares of his post as a scapegoat. General manager Zhu Guanghu took over in May and started his regime during, which Shenzhen became a major force within the league and placed fifth in 2001 before coming runners-up in 2002 (though through a joking poker sortition at a formal FA judgment process, in which coach Xie Feng picked card 6 and stated it as 9 and thus won a runner-up back for Shenzhen) their highest finish at the time.

Jianlibao Group

The Jianlibao Group took over the club before the 2003 campaign and renamed the club after its own brand. The club came fourth within the league and brought in major Chinese signings in Yang Chen who returned to China after spending several seasons in Germany while Zheng Bin answered the summon of Zhu, his coach back in the international youth team. These inclusions as well as the defender Zheng Zhi converted to a playmaker saw Shenzhen Jianlibao sensationally won the first ever Chinese Super League title in 2004 despite severe financial problems leaving players unpaid for seven months. By-then head coach Zhu Guanghu was subsequently awarded the coach of the year award and was appointed head coach of the Chinese national team.

The following season quickly saw the team fall from grace and they only managed a twelfth-place finish (third from bottom) in the league. The new head coach Chi Shangbin resigned after only three mouths due to his poor relationship with the squad, especially from then-captain Li Weifeng and senior players like Li Yi and Yang Chen. Chi was unhappy due to the senior players' influential control over the team, their unprofessional behavior and discipline especially with gambling. He tried to regain control of the squad with his strictness, but most of the players reacted fiercely by training and playing even more poorly. Li Weifeng punched Chi's office window; Yang Chen, who is already a relatively gentle person got upset too and repeatedly exposed the uselessness of Chi's policy to media, which saw the then owner Yang Saixin having to let Chi go. Both of them later infamously and sensationally labeled the troublemakers as "QiuBa"(Football-lord). Throughout the chaos, Shenzhen were still able to reach the 2005 AFC Champions League semi-finals after defeating Saudi Arabian side Al-Ahli despite losing the first leg in Jeddah before they were later heavily defeated by UAE champions Al Ain FC 6–0 in the semi-finals.

The following season the Jianlibao Group lacked interest and cash for investment and were taken over by the Beijing Huizhong Tianheng Investment Company. While the acquisition went through the club survived merely on sponsorship and by selling the best players off. Under domestic head coaches and youngsters from the youth teams founded back in Jianlibao era stepped up in time, and avoided relegations with help from key foreign players in Marek Zając and his compatriot Bogdan Zając. After a heavy defeat at home losing 1–4 to the champion Changchun Yatai at the last match of 2007 season, owner Yang Saixin claimed that he was "fed up" and wanted to sell the club. With no buyers and bids the club went into administration and it was only through their sponsorship deals and the Shenzhen Football Association keeping the club afloat. They experienced more difficulties when their head coach Mai Chao unexpectedly left after one match to join the Guangzhou Football Association and manage their youth team. Long-serving youth coach Zhang Zengqun took over, later joined by former head coach Wang Baoshan as technical consultant. With crucial goals coming from Johnson, nicknamed "Angolan the Great" by fans, who surprisingly won the silver boot award with 13 goals; and veteran Song Lihui the club survived relegation despite a difficult start to the season.

Wan Hongwei

On January 21, 2009, Shenzhen F.C. was reportedly bought out of administration by a "Hong Kong based investor" who gained control by acquiring 51% of the club's stock, with the remaining 49% to be transferred in the next six months for a complete takeover alongside former player Fan Yuhong who also brought in his academy at Nanshan, Shenzhen to become the club's youth side while as well as becoming the new managerial director and acting-head coach. On February 28, 2009, Fan Yuhong revealed that the new owners of the club were two main shareholders of China Motion, a publicly listed company in Hong Kong, however these rumors were false. The reality of Shenzhen's finances was that the club's sponsor Shenzhen Asia Travel Sports Culture Communication Co., Ltd were acquiring the majority of the club's shares. Meanwhile, Shenzhen were in talks with a new kit advertisement and naming right sponsor, which would help further stabilize and secure the club's finances while the takeover finished, but only received a miner deal halfway through the season. On November 4, 2009 Wan Wongwei, a representative of a Singapore-based investment company revealed himself as the real investor and chairman of the club. With the Ruby company founded by him and other shareholders to run the club he decided to renamed the club as Shenzhen Ruby FC. Meanwhile, back on the field the team started the season slow and after a heavy 6–1 defeat to Guangzhou F.C. on August 8, Fan was sacked. Former player and coach Xie Feng was appointed as spearhead of the possible return of the legendary Zhu Guanghu, but Zhu turned to wealthier Shaanxi Chanba instead. As Xie Feng tightened the defense, and crucial reinforcements from the transfer market including Hernan Barcos, Mao Jianqing, Marko Zoric and Chen Jie, the team impressively had a 10 match unbeaten run towards the end of season and avoided relegation, despite a controversial 3-point deduction from the FA for wearing the wrong colour kit and in the subsequently delayed match versus Shanghai Shenhua.

Former Cyprus international Siniša Gogić was appointed as head coach for the 2010 season. The attacking and passionate Serbian brought a roller-coaster run combined with an unbeaten start even once reaching the top of the table, however consecutive loses saw them slide towards a relegation fight till the last match of the season. Up to eight foreign players including various internationals Chris Killen, Aleksandar Živković, Vyacheslav Hleb, Ivan Vicelich and Hussein Alaa Hussein all contributed throughout the season and saved the club from relegation for the sixth consecutive season. Off the pitch Ruby Company also announced the three years sponsorship and cooperation deal from Kweichow Moutai Company worth more than 100 million RMB. The club added "Moutai" in its name once again as their named sponsor.

Philippe Troussier

From a meeting during the 2011 AFC Asian Cup, Wan Hongwei signed former Japanese international head coach Philippe Troussier