Wuhan Yangtze River Football Club, formerly Wuhan Zall Football Club (), is a professional Chinese

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 that currently participates in 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 football in ...

under licence from the

Chinese Football Association The Chinese Football Association (CFA) is the governing body for association football, beach soccer and futsal in People's Republic of China (Mainland China). The CFA organizes the men's and women's national teams and administers the country's ...

(CFA). The team is based in

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei, Hubei Province in the China, 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 List of cities in China ...

Hubei 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 ...

and their home stadium is the

Dongxihu Sports Centre Wuhan Five Rings Sports Center (), formerly known as Dongxihu Sports Center (), is a sports complex located in Dongxihu District, Wuhan, Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and ...

that has a seating capacity of 30,000. Their current majority shareholder is the investment company Wuhan Zall Development Holding Co. Ltd. The club was founded in 2009 after the withdrawal and then dissolution of its predecessor

Wuhan Optics Valley Wuhan Optics Valley Football Club () is a defunct football club that was located in the city of Wuhan, Hubei province, China. The club's home stadium was Xinhua Road Sports Center, while the important matches were played at the more modern stadi ...

from the league after the club had a dispute with the

over their on-field behaviour. The Hubei Province soccer association decided to help form a new team with players mainly from the former

and Hubei youth teams. They entered at the start of the 2009 league campaign at the bottom of the professional Chinese football league pyramid in the third tier. The team won promotion to the

2013 Chinese Super League The 2013 Chinese Super League was the tenth season since the establishment of the Chinese Super League, the 20th season of a professional football league and the 52nd top-tier league season in China. Guangzhou Evergrande won their third consecuti ...

after coming runners-up in the

2012 China League One The 2012 China League One was the ninth season of the China League One, the second tier of the Chinese football league pyramid, since its establishment. It began on March 17, 2012 and ended on October 28, 2012. The size of the league has been expa ...

division and spent only one season in the top flight before being relegated back down. In 2018, the team won the

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

again and earned their second season in the top flight.

History

2009–2011: Hubei Luyin

Hubei Luyin was founded in February, 2009 after its predecessor

withdrew from the top tier because of its controversial punishment in October 2008 after the club had a dispute with the

over the club's on-field behaviour against

Beijing Guoan Beijing Guoan Football Club () is a professional football club that currently participates in the Chinese Super League under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is based in the Chaoyang District in Beijing and their ho ...

in a 27 September 2008 league game. Due to their withdrawal they were unable to register and participate in any professional Chinese tournaments, however the Hubei Province football association decided that due to the lack of representation of any

teams within the Chinese football league system they would help create a new team to represent Hubei and use the Wuhan U-19 team as well as the Hubei youth team as the foundation for the squad. This saw the establishment of a new football club on the 26 February 2009 when the Hubei Luyin officially registered itself within the Chinese Football Association and start at the bottom of the professional football system in the third tier. The club would show their unusual strength in depth when they would breeze through the regional section of the league campaign and enter into the play-off finals where they lost their only game of the season

Hunan Billows F.C. Hunan Billows Football Club () is a professional Chinese football club that participates in the China League Two division under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is based in Changsha, Hunan and their home stadium is t ...

in a penalty shoot out. Despite the defeat the club would win promotion to the second tier and to strengthen their team they bought back the contracts of several Wuhan Optics Valley players who were not permanently sold off.

2011–2018: Wuhan Zall

With the club in the second tier they would go through a period of joint investment from several parties until 14 December 2011 saw the Zall Group take ownership of the club and rename them Wuhan Zall Football Club as well as changing the team's colours back to orange, which was the club's predecessor's main colours. Initially the new owners saw the team struggle throughout the 2012 league season and decided to sack the existing manager Jose Carlos de Oliveira and replace him with

Zheng Xiong Zheng Xiong (; born February 5, 1966, in Wuhan) is a Chinese football manager. He is the current manager of China League One side Zhejiang Greentown. In his youth he experienced organised football training in his hometown of Wuhan, however this ...

on a caretaker basis. As the season went on the results considerably improved under Zheng Xiong who was given a full-time contract before guiding Wuhan Zall to second within the league and promotion to the

. The club's start in the 2013 league season was not a success and when the team went six games without a win, Zheng resigned. The former

Shandong Luneng Shandong Taishan Football Club () is a professional football club that currently participates in the Chinese Super League under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is based in Jinan, Shandong and their home stadium is th ...

Head coach who had won the Chinese Super League,

Ljubiša Tumbaković Ljubiša Tumbaković (, ; born 2 September 1952) is a Serbian professional football manager. He is the most successful coach in the history of Serbian powerhouse Partizan which he led to six national championship titles and three national cup wi ...

was brought in to manage the team, however despite his experience in the league he was unable to help the club avoid relegation and he was sacked before the season was finished. In 2015 the football club was sold to a private company Wuhan Zall Development Holding Co. Ltd. under the ownership of their chairman Yan Zhi and his relatives, for RMB 20,630,000.

2019-Present: Super League

After several seasons within the second tier, the club brought in

Li Tie Li Tie (; born 18 May 1977) is a Chinese professional football coach and former player. As a player he represented Liaoning FC in the Chinese Jia-A League, Everton in the Premier League, Sheffield United in the Football League Championship a ...

as the Head Coach, a manager who had previously guided Hebei China Fortune F.C. to the top tier. In his debut season Li Tie was able to guide Wuhan to the victory of the division championship and promotion back into the Chinese Super League at the end of the 2018 league season.

Name history

*2009–2010: Hubei Luyin F.C. () *2011: Hubei Wuhan Zhongbo F.C. () *2012–2020: Wuhan Zall F.C. () *2021: Wuhan F.C. () *2022–: Wuhan Yangtze River F.C. ()

Current squad

First team

Reserve squad

''As of 1 March 2019''

Unregistered players

Out on loan

Retired numbers

8 retired for the legend, Yao Hanlin.

Coaching staff

Managerial history

* Li Jun (2009–10) * Li Xiao (2011) * Jose Carlos de Oliveira (2011–12) *

(24 April 2012 – 21 April 2013) *

(22 April 2013 – 18 August 2013) * Wang Jun (19 August 2013 – 10 December 2013) *

Dražen Besek Dražen Besek (born 10 March 1963) is a Croatian coach and former professional football midfield player, who is currently a general manager of Maghreb de Fès. As a player he was mainly remembered for his time with Croatian teams Varteks and Di ...

(11 December 2013 – September 2014) *

Zheng Bin Zheng Bin (; born July 4, 1977) is a Chinese football coach and a former international who played as a left midfielder or striker. As a player he represented Shenzhen Jianlibao, Wuhan Huanghelou and Wuhan Zall while internationally he played ...

(September 2014 – 17 July 2015) *

(17 July 2015 – 26 June 2016) *

Ciro Ferrara Ciro Ferrara (; born 11 February 1967) is an Italian former footballer and manager. His most recent position was as manager of Wuhan Zall. He had also previously coached Juventus and the Italy national under-21 team. As an assistant coach to ...

(July 2016 – 20 March 2017) *

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 footba ...

(30 March 2017 – 9 July 2017) * Chen Yang (9 July 2017 – 10 November 2017) *

(16 November 2017 – 2 January 2020 ) *

José Manuel González López José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacul ...

(4 January 2020 – )

Results

*As of the end of 2018 season. All-time League Rankings * in group stage 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

References

External links

Wuhan Yangtze River
at

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

{{Chinese Super League Chinese Super League clubs Sport in Wuhan 2009 establishments in China Association football clubs established in 2009