Hunan Billows F.C.

Hunan Billows
Húnán Xiāngtāo
湖南湘涛
Full name Hunan Xiangtao Football Club
湖南湘涛足球俱乐部
Founded 26 December 2006 (2006-12-26) (official)
15 January 2004 (unofficial)
Ground Yiyang Stadium,[1] China
Capacity 30,000
Chairman Li Jingman
Manager Sun Wei
League China League Two
2017 League Two, 16th

Hunan Billows Football Club (simplified Chinese: 湖南湘涛; traditional Chinese: 湖南湘濤; pinyin: Húnán Xiāngtāo) 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 Yiyang, Hunan and their home stadium is the 30,000-seat Yiyang Stadium. Their majority shareholders are the Hunan Provincial Sports Bureau and high-tech industry company Hunan Corun New Energy Co. Ltd.

The club was founded on January 15, 2004 as Hunan Xiangjun to take part in the second tier at the beginning of the 2004 Chinese football league season. After three seasons the club was relegated and faced financial difficulties. To preserve the representation of Hunan province in the Chinese football league pyramid, fans of the club raised three million Yuan in the hopes of keeping the team going. The local Hunan government sports body decided that it would be best to invest on a brand new team for the area and formed a new club called Hunan Billows (Simplified Chinese: 湖南湘军) on December 26, 2006. The reformed club won the 2009 Chinese League Two title and promotion to the Chinese League One division where they have since remained.

History

Formation

Before the start of the 2004 Chinese football league season, Chongqing Lifan and Yunnan Hongta merged their football clubs together. This left a free space available in the second division. The surplus players from the clubs formed a new club called Hunan Xiangjun (or Hunan Shoking Football Club in English). They gained investment from the Hunan Corun New Energy Co. Ltd., which bought the club's registration into the division for 20 million Yuan.[2] On January 15, 2004, the club was inaugurated into the Chinese football league. They hired former Chinese Olympic medalist Xiong Ni as their Chairman and former Chinese international footballer Zhu Bo as their first manager. Playing in the 55,000-seat Helong Stadium in Changsha, the club had international players - Fu Bin and Srđan Bajčetić - while the youth team called Xiangxue Pharmaceutical participated in the 2004–05 Hong Kong First Division League to gain experience.[3] The youth team had limitless success. The senior team fared little better and struggled in their debut season. They finished tenth at the end of the season.[4]

The following season was extremely difficult for the club, Miloš Hrstić came in as manager but had an extremely high profile dispute with the owners about unpaid wages. It was soon discovered that the club were in financial difficulties due to an excessive wage bill for their players along with renting of Helong Stadium.[5] The ownership of the club moved to the company Bailong and their general manager Sun Yingui for a brief period. However this was short-lived and Hunan Corun took over the club again. While this was going on Li Hui was managing the side with little success. He and his players reached a breaking point after a humiliating 5–1 defeat to Shanghai International on June 18, 2005 in a Chinese FA Cup game. Li Hui publicly criticized his players' lack of commitment before deciding to leave the club.[6] Wang Tao was brought in as his replacement to manage the club. The team finished in a disappointing twelfth but remained in the league.[7] Li Kejia was brought in as a new manager in the 2006 league season. The team continued to lose, and former Chinese international Hao Haidong was brought in as a General manager to help inspire the team. This turned out to be fruitless and the club finished at the bottom of the league and were relegated to the third tier.[8]

Reformation

To preserve the representation of Hunan province in the Chinese football league pyramid, fans of the club raised three million Yuan in the hopes of keeping the team going before the local Hunan Provincial Sports Bureau decided that it would be best to invest in a new team for the area.[9] On December 26, 2006, a new team was formed to participate in the 2007 league season called Hunan Xiangtao (or Hunan Billows Football Club in English) despite Xiong Ni returning as their Chairman and Li Kejia returning as their manager.[10] Now playing within the 6,000-seat Hunan Provincial People's Stadium. The team was completely rebuilt and played their first league game against Sichuan FC in a 1–0 defeat.[11] Throughout the season the club's results improved and the team finished third in the Southern division. They made the play-offs but were knocked out in the second round.[12] With a further investment of six million Yuan from the local Hunan government sports body, in the following season results the club gained another play-off position. Again they were knocked out in the second round.[13] By the 2009 league season and with the continued investment of the local Hunan government sports body and of the management of Men Wenfeng, the club won the division title after they beat local rivals Hubei Greenery in the play-off final to win the division title.[14] In the second tier again they moved back into the Helong Stadium and hired Zhao Faqing as their new manager at the beginning of the 2010 league season. The season began well for the club and they looked like genuine promotion contenders. Conflicts between the Hunan and the Hubei Greenery fans during their May 14 game seemed to derail their promotion push. They finished the season in sixth.[15] The next season they moved into the 20,000-seat Central South University Stadium and brought in Miloš Hrstić to manage them. Miloš Hrstić's leadership improved the team's ranking at the end of the 2011 league season slightly - they finished fourth. He left the club at the end of the season and was replaced by his assistant coach Zhang Xu.[16] In preparation for the 2012 league season the club brought in several high profile players such as Honduras internationals Emil Martínez and Erick Norales and Chinese international Dong Fangzhuo in their hopes to win promotion.[17] The recruitment for not result in promotion that season, but it brought an increase in investment in from the Hunan Liuyang River Wine Winery Industry Co., Ltd., Zoomlion Company Limited, Central South Publishing & Media Group Co., Ltd., Kelme and the return of Hunan Corun New Energy co. ltd.[18]

Hunan Billows FC football shirt in 2016

Name history

  • 2004–06 Hunan Xiangjun (湖南湘军)
  • 2007– Hunan Billows (湖南湘涛)

Grounds

The team have played in several stadiums throughout their history. When they were formed they predominantly used the 55,000-seat Helong Stadium in Changsha for their important matches. The more modest 6,000-seat Hunan Provincial People's Stadium which is also located in Changsha was used for their smaller games.[19] With the club in financial difficulties the cost of renting the Helong Stadium led the team to move permanently into the Hunan Provincial People's Stadium. They started there when the club was reformed and they were playing in the third tier. When they won promotion back into the second tier, the Helong Stadium was an option for a brief period before 2011 when they have predominantly used the 20,000-seat Central South University Stadium in Changsha as their main stadium.[20]

Current squad

As of 27 March 2018 [21]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
1 China GK Deng Zihao
2 China DF Zhong Zhenlong
3 China DF Zhou Tanwei
4 China MF Wang Yuxuan
5 China MF Yao Xilong
6 China DF Kong Tao
7 China MF Wang Qing
8 China MF Wang Jun
9 China MF Zhuang Jiajie
10 China FW Zhang Hao
11 China MF Ruan Yang
13 China FW Wang Chen
15 China MF Wang Quan
16 China DF Wu Haitian
No. Position Player
17 China FW Liu Peilin
18 China MF Wang Kang
19 China MF Du Shaobin
20 China FW Tan Si
21 China MF Yao Shuo
22 China GK Dong Hang
23 China DF Liu Qing
27 China MF Yuan Lu
28 China DF Miao Ming
29 China GK Jiang Bo
31 China DF Liu Shuai
32 China DF Yu Tianzhu
36 China MF Hao Shuai
39 China DF Yuan Weiwei

Coaching staff

Position Staff
Head coach China Sun Wei
Assistant coach China Li Hongwu
Goalkeeping Coach China Yang Guidong
Fitness coach China Huang Cheng
Team Physician China Ren Peilin
China Yang Junchao

Source: sina.com

|}

Results

All-time league rankings

Year Div Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Pos. FA Cup Super Cup AFC Att./G Stadium
2004232710153451−173114R1DNQDNQXiangtan City Sports Center
Helong Stadium
Hunan Provincial People's Stadium
200522654172456−321912R2DNQDNQHelong Stadium
Liuyang City Sports Center
200622429131633−171513R1DNQDNQHelong Stadium
20073145451516−116 18[24]NHDNQDNQHunan Provincial People's Stadium
2008316101523141928 16[25]NHDNQDNQHunan Provincial People's Stadium
200931769230171315 1WNHDNQDNQHunan Provincial People's Stadium
201022410592124−3356NHDNQDNQHunan Provincial People's Stadium
2011226126839354424R1DNQDNQHunan Provincial People's Stadium
CSUFT East-Garden Stadium
2012230108123337−43811R3DNQDNQ6,970CSUFT East-Garden Stadium
Hunan Provincial People's Stadium
Yiyang Olympic Sports Park Stadium
201323079142740−133012R3DNQDNQ4,668Yiyang Olympic Sports Park Stadium
Helong Stadium
2014230129938335456R3DNQDNQ5,169CSUFT East-Garden Stadium
Yiyang Olympic Sports Park Stadium
201523085173248−162914R2DNQDNQ4,795Yiyang Olympic Sports Park Stadium
Helong Stadium
201623026221661-541216R2DNQDNQ3,781Yiyang Olympic Sports Park Stadium
201732494113133-23116R1DNQDNQ712Yiyang Olympic Sports Park Stadium
20183R3DNQDNQYiyang Olympic Sports Park Stadium
  • ^1 In group stage.

Key

Honours

Winners (1) : 2009

References

  1. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-02-07. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
  2. ↑ ""足球湘军"加速本土化　海南猛练体能". sina.com.cn. 2004-01-27. Retrieved 2012-07-16.
  3. ↑ "Hongkong 2004/05". rsssf.com. 17 Nov 2005. Retrieved 2012-07-16.
  4. ↑ "China 2004". rsssf.com. 7 Apr 2005. Archived from the original on September 29, 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-16.
  5. ↑ "米罗西中国足球情结：与米卢亲密 拒绝假赌黑". sports.qq.com. 2010-11-29. Retrieved 2015-07-15.
  6. ↑ "湖南湘军失控足协杯惨败 主帅李辉黯然逃离(图)". sports.sohu.com. 2005-06-27. Retrieved 2012-07-16.
  7. ↑ "China 2005". rsssf.com. 26 Oct 2006. Archived from the original on September 29, 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-16.
  8. ↑ "郝海东出手收购湖南湘军(图)". sohu.com. 2006-07-18. Retrieved 2012-07-16.
  9. ↑ "球迷捐助300万重组湘军 湘涛俱乐部成立战中乙". sohu.com. 2007-01-24. Retrieved 2012-07-16.
  10. ↑ "熊倪倾情关注湖南足球 湘涛回家备战07乙级联赛". hnxiangtao.com. 2007-04-12. Archived from the original on 2013-02-03. Retrieved 2012-07-16.
  11. ↑ "乙级联赛湘涛首战失利 0比1惜败给来访四川队". hnxiangtao.com. 2007-05-06. Archived from the original on 2013-02-03. Retrieved 2012-07-16.
  12. ↑ "China 2007". rsssf.com. 18 Apr 2008. Archived from the original on October 17, 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-16.
  13. ↑ "湖南湘涛砸六百万冲甲". sina.com.cn. 2008-04-29. Retrieved 2012-07-16.
  14. 1 2 "China 2009". rsssf.com. 23 Apr 2010. Archived from the original on October 15, 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-16.
  15. ↑ "湘鄂球迷爆小规模冲突 不和谐因子去年已种下(图)". sports.sina.com.cn. 2010-05-14. Retrieved 2012-07-16.
  16. ↑ "China 2010". rsssf.com. 21 Jun 2012. Archived from the original on July 15, 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-16.
  17. ↑ "08中超足球先生马丁内斯加盟湖南湘涛". hnxiangtao.com. 2011-12-15. Archived from the original on 2012-01-23. Retrieved 2012-07-16.
  18. ↑ "湘涛备战加一鞭子". epaper.voc.com.cn. 2013-01-08. Retrieved 2015-07-15.
  19. ↑ "Hunan Xiangtao FC". soccerway.com. Retrieved 25 December 2011.
  20. ↑ "Team's stadiums" (in Chinese). hnxiangtao.com , team website. Retrieved 25 December 2011.
  21. ↑ 2018中乙俱乐部报名表 fa.org.cn 2018-03-27 Retrieved 2018-03-28
  22. ↑ "China – List of Champions". rsssf.com. 20 March 2014. Archived from the original on July 4, 2014. Retrieved 7 May 2014.
  23. ↑ "湖南湘涛". sodasoccer.com. Retrieved 3 February 2014.
  24. ↑ 2007年中国足球协会乙级联赛决赛阶段比赛名次 fa.org.cn 2013-04-30 Retrieved 2016-03-04
  25. ↑ 2008年中国足球协会乙级联赛决赛阶段比赛名次 fa.org.cn 2013-04-30 Retrieved 2016-03-04
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