TOM Sports News On October 25th, 1998, Guangzhou Sun God drew Qingdao Manatees 1-1 in the provincial stadium-this is the last battle of the first team of Guangzhou football in the history of the top football league in China. At that time, some people in Guangzhou football lamented that it would take at least 10 years to get up after the demotion of Guangzhou football!
I cann’t believe it’s a prophecy. By the time the Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Team appears in the Super League next year, it will be exactly 10 years since Guangzhou Football left the top league.
If the success of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Team is the reward of Guangzhou professional football for ten years, then behind it, it is the dream of the top league written by generations of football players in Guangzhou in the past 50 years!
From 1950s to 1970s.
Sanli stove has experienced hardships.
Modern football was introduced to Hong Kong in the late 19th century, then to Guangzhou and then to the mainland.
In June 1954, Guangzhou established the first professional football team (later named "Zhongnan White Team"), thus becoming the earliest city in China to establish a municipal professional football team. In April, 1955, the South China White Team participated in the first National Football League in the name of Guangzhou City Team, and finally ranked eighth, failing to enter the first batch of seven first-class teams.
In 1956, the Guangzhou team won the championship in the national second division with unbeaten record, but the China Football Association suddenly announced that the second division would not be promoted or demoted that year.
In 1958, the Guangzhou team won the second-class championship, which was the first time in history to hit the top league successfully. Unfortunately, in order to welcome the first National Games in 1959, Guangzhou team was taken over by Guangdong Provincial Sports Commission, and the team was dissolved for the first time.
In April 1961, the Guangzhou Football Team was reorganized. During this period, Guangdong football fell into a low tide, and the Guangzhou team was taken over by the Provincial Sports Commission in 1966 and dissolved for the second time.
It was not until October 26, 1977 that the Guangzhou team was restored and called "Guangzhou Youth Team". The following year, the Guangzhou Youth Team participated in the National Youth League and won the third place in the division. The Guangzhou team, which was rebuilt for the third time, continued to attack the top leagues.
From 1980s to 1992.
The third promotion is tortuous.
In 1980, Guangzhou Youth Team won the second place in the National Football Division Competition (League C) and was promoted to the second division. In May 1981, the Guangzhou Sports Work Brigade was established, and the Guangzhou Football Team won the first place in the second division of that year and successfully achieved the miracle of "triple jump" for two years. This miracle reappeared in the era of professional leagues after many years.
In 1982, for the first time in the history of Guangzhou football, Guangzhou officially participated in the top league with the promotion and demotion system. However, due to Mai Chao, Wu Qunli, Zhao Dayu and other outstanding players’ promotion of national teams at all levels, the Guangzhou team only reached 15th place in the first division and fell back to the second division again. The following year, although the Guangzhou team won the second place in the second division, the tragedy was repeated again, and the China Football Association once again decided that there would be no promotion or demotion in the second division.
In 1984, the Guangzhou team reached the eighth place in the first FA Cup and was promoted to the first class for the second time. At this time, in the early stage of China’s reform and opening-up, Guangzhou people who dared to be the pioneers began to try to get in touch with the market in the field of football. In October 1984, Guangzhou Baiyunshan Pharmaceutical Factory signed a contract with Guangzhou Sports Commission to jointly run the Guangzhou Football Team with an annual sponsorship of 200,000 yuan, setting a precedent for national enterprises to undertake excellent sports teams. Today, Guangzhou Baiyunshan Pharmaceutical Factory has become a member of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group. It can be said that Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group took over the Guangzhou team to complete the "Chongchao Dream". In fact, the seeds were sown 22 years ago. In 1986, Guangzhou Baiyun Team pioneered the introduction of coaches in China and hired Qi Wusheng to coach.
In 1989, Guangzhou Baiyun Team expanded into a football club. However, in the A-level competition in which the second national team participated that year, Baiyun Team only won the last place and was relegated again.
In 1990, under the leadership of Chen Yiming, Baiyun team was promoted to A as the second place in A B and the top league for the third time. In 1992, "Young Shuai" zhou suian took the lead. With the efforts of a group of veterans such as Mai Chao, Wu Qunli and Li Yong, and young players represented by Peng Weiguo, the team finally got the runner-up, which is also the highest honor that Guangzhou Football won in the "professional era" of China football.
1993 ~ 1996
Rising sun Dongsheng sun god
After "Xu Jiajun" failed to attack the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992, China football began to brew system reform. In June, China Football Association held the "Hongshankou Conference", which established the development direction of professionalization. In October, 1993, China Football Association held a working meeting in Bangchui Island, Dalian, and decided to take the 1994 League A as a pilot reform.
Guangzhou people, who are good at drinking soup, are ahead again. On January 8, 1993, Guangzhou Sun God Group signed a contract with Guangzhou Sports Commission to establish the first joint-stock professional football club in China.
At the beginning of 1994, the "zhou suian Incident" broke out in Guangzhou Sun God Club, which for the first time highlighted the contradiction and conflict between employment and concept and professionalism in the era of professional system. As a result, zhou suian managed to hold the handsome whip smoothly, but due to the infighting and physical examination, the performance of the Sun God team in the first stage was not ideal. After the World Cup in the United States, Guangzhou Sun God team began to exert its strength and won six consecutive victories, including the classic battle of beating Shanghai Shenhua team 6-1 away. In the end, the Sun God team unexpectedly won the runner-up in the first top league after professionalization, and Peng Weiguo and Hu Zhijun became popular stars.
In 1995, the Sun God team experienced negative news such as coaching change and "JASON ZHANG contradiction (Zhang Jingtian, Yang Feisun)", and this favorite team won only the fifth place in the end. One of the most sensational events of the Helios team this year was to knock the "Ten Champions" Liaoning team to the ground. At first, the Helios team beat their opponents 6-0 at home, and then in the penultimate round, the head coach Zhang Jingtian replaced Peng Weiguo and Hu Zhijun early, but Feng Feng and Lv Jianjun, who came off the bench, magically scored two goals and sent the Liaoning team to A B.
By 1996, there were three A teams in one city of Guangzhou, which reached the brilliant peak since professionalization. However, Guangdong football, which was too pragmatic, was collectively "a beat behind" at this time. The Sun God team did not take any further measures in introducing domestic and foreign aid. In the end, the coach Xian Dixiong could only take the team to the seventh place in A.
Liu Wei, who has worked in the Sun God Club for seven years, now recalls those days and thinks that the first few years of professionalism were undoubtedly a "passionate year" for Guangzhou football. At that time, China’s football was still very simple, and the characteristics of Guangzhou people who dared to open up the atmosphere at that time showed their advantages. However, with the increasing investment in professional football and the deterioration of the league environment, some advantages of Guangzhou football gradually disappear or even become disadvantages. The glory created by the Sun God team has since bid farewell to the historical stage.
1997 ~ 2000
The setting sun gradually sighs helplessness.
After the end of A-A in 1996, 13 main players of Helios team applied for transfer successively. Although most of them stayed in the end, the signs of "the sun went down" appeared irresistibly. Chen Yiming, the new coach, tried out the "New Guangzhou Style" and got into trouble. Mai Chao took over from Chen Yiming, and the Sun God team finally managed to avoid relegation. In the last battle of that year, the Sun God team drew the Sichuan Quanxing team away from home, and it became a classic scene for all the fans to sing "Too Soft Heart".
In 1998, with the departure of Peng Weiguo and Hu Zhijun, and the after-effects of selling the second team to Songri enterprises in 1995 broke out in an all-round way, the Sun God team appeared a serious lack of success. In the big environment, because some monopoly state-owned enterprises began to intervene in football, the competition of the Sun God Club with insufficient economic strength on and off the court was at a disadvantage, and the Sun God team was finally relegated. At this time, the five-year contract between Helios Group and Guangzhou Sports Commission expired, and Guangzhou professional football came to the brink of death.
Sun Shen Group finally renewed its five-year contract with Guangzhou Sports Commission and made a pioneering move to auction the right to operate the home court. However, after the auction, the living environment of Guangzhou team became worse. In 1999, the Helios team could only reach the 8 th place in A B.
In 2000, the annual investment of Helios Club exceeded 20 million yuan for the first time. A Brazilian coach Rodriguez, known as "Teacher tavares", appeared in the team’s handsome position, but this old Brazilian led the team to get one draw and four losses in the first five rounds, which was the worst start in the team’s history. Zhou suian took over the Guangzhou team for the second time. It was not until the final battle of relegation with Beijing Kuanli team in the provincial stadium that the winning goal scored by Wuhan domestic aid Zeng Qinggao helped the Sun God team avoid relegation successfully. In this battle, thousands of fans poured into the stadium, and the club staff and players burst into tears after the game. The scene was very touching.
From 1997 to 2000, professional football in China entered a "golden development period". But unfortunately, Guangzhou football did not taste the sweetness, but swallowed the bitter fruit and created the darkest memory.
2001 ~ 2005
Chengtou Bianbian Dawang Banner
At the beginning of 2001, the Sun God Club officially announced its withdrawal from the professional football circle, and Guangzhou football fell into an unprecedented survival crisis. Under various opportunities, Geely Automobile Group from Zhejiang took over the Guangzhou team, which is the first time in the history of Guangzhou football that an enterprise from outside the province took over. On March 16th of that year, Geely Group bought 90% of the shares of Guangzhou Football Association for 14 million yuan. Under the name of "Guangzhou Geely Team", the team, led by Liu Kang, opened a journey to hit the top leagues in the new century.
In the first half of the year, Guangzhou Geely team won the "Half Runner-up". But at this time, the environment of football in China was quite bad. After Yan Shiduo became the head of the China Football Association in 2000, the professional football in China suffered a "great retrogression"-in order to gamble on the 2002 World Cup, Yan Shiduo decided to cancel the relegation of League A in 2001. As a result, A and B with only two promotion places have become a cruel "shopping" place, and all kinds of "fake black" phenomena have reached an unprecedented situation. After the start of the second half of 2001, Geely team fell behind from the first group with 2 draws and 3 losses. Zhou suian became the coach of Guangzhou team for the third time, and led the team to win five consecutive victories. However, in the final stage of the league, the "Five Rats Incident" broke out, and after Geely was "blacked out" in Shanghai COSCO, it was completely out of the question of "rushing to A". After the end of the season, Geely Club and Greentown Club jointly launched an "anti-black storm", but the failure of Guangzhou Football "Chong A" was irreversible, and Geely Group announced its withdrawal after taking over the team for 9 months.
After Geely withdrew, the Guangzhou team was entrusted by the Municipal Football Association, and Guangzhou professional football came to a crossroads again. In the end, Guangzhou Xiangxue Pharmaceutical Company lent a helping hand and invested 16 million yuan to acquire a 30% stake in Guangzhou Football Club, and was named Guangzhou Team for two consecutive years.
Since 2002, professional leagues in China have entered a period of great retrogression. In that year, there was no promotion or demotion in A B, and the Guangzhou Xiangxue team, led by zhou suian and Wu Qunli successively, only finished 11th in A B.. Although Guangzhou Football Club made a rare profit by selling players at the beginning of the year, the worst performance in the history of professional leagues still made the football community in Guangzhou very confused.
At the beginning of 2003, Mai Chao, who had just retired from the National Youth Team, held the coach of Guangzhou Xiangxue Team, and Xiangxue Team reached the third place in A B. In 2004, A B changed its name to A, and the China Football Association stipulated that teams participating in A League must implement the shareholding system reform, and local football associations can no longer hold shares. Therefore, Guangzhou Football Association, which originally held 70% shares of Guangzhou Football Club, invited investment from outside in November 2003, hoping to transfer all its shares.
After two months’ embarrassing situation, at the beginning of 2004, Dongguan Rizhiquan Group entered Guangzhou Football Club with "zero transfer", and Guangzhou team went to the first League A under the name of "Guangzhou Rizhiquan Team". In the following two years, Guangzhou Rizhiquan Club had many conflicts with the relevant authorities because of the investment problem. In fact, since 2004, professional football in China has entered a game pattern of capital and power, and the "Sun Fountain Model" itself is beyond reproach. However, under the background of Guangzhou’s successful bid for Asia and the municipal government’s writing the development of football brands into the "Eleventh Five-Year Development Plan", Guangzhou professional football will inevitably be pushed forward.
On February 25, 2006, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group took over, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Football Club was formally established, and Guangzhou professional football opened a new chapter. That year, Qi Wusheng’s leadership fell short, but GPHL’s ambition of "overtaking" remained unchanged. This year, GPHL continued to increase investment, hired Shen Xiangfu as the coach, and introduced a number of domestic and foreign aid. After 23 rounds of hard work by all the soldiers of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Team, the long-cherished wish of returning to the top league was finally completed after 9 years.
Editor: Zack Zhang