Ground Capacity 52,672 Chairman Du Ping Location Hangzhou, China Chairperson Du Ping | Owner Song Weiping Manager Hong Myung-bo Founded 1998 | |
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Full name Hangzhou Greentown FC
杭州绿城足球俱乐部 Nickname(s) Greentown
绿城
Green Giants
绿巨人 Ground Hangzhou Huanglong Stadium Arena/Stadium Yellow Dragon Sports Center Leagues Chinese Super League, China League One | ||
Hangzhou Greentown Football Club (simplified Chinese: 杭州绿城; traditional Chinese: 杭州綠城; pinyin: Hángzhōu Lǜchéng) is a professional Chinese football club that currently participates in the China League One division (second division) under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang and their home stadium is the Hangzhou Huanglong Stadium that has a seating capacity of 52,672. The club's main investor is the Zhejiang-based Greentown China Holdings Limited company, which is owned by real estate tycoon Song Weiping. Greentown became the first sports club from Hangzhou with 1 million followers on Weibo.
Contents
- History
- Name history
- Current squad
- First team
- Reserve squad
- Out on loan
- Coaching staff
- Managerial history
- League
- Youth Team
- Results
- References
The club was founded on January 14, 1998 and they made their debut in the third tier of China's football league pyramid in the 1999 league season. On November 23, 2000 the club bought the first team of Jilin Aodong as well as their position in the second division for 25 million Yuan. They have subsequently won promotion to the top tier after finishing runners-up in the 2006 league season and the highest position they have ever finished is fourth in the 2010 Chinese Super League season.
History
Zhejiang Greentown Football Club Co., Ltd. was officially established on January 14, 1998 with a capital of 16,000,000 Yuan and Zeng Leming was appointed as their general manager. Greentown Real Estate Company, Hangzhou Qiantang Real Estate Company, Zhejiang University and Zhejiang Provincial Football Association all participated in the creation as well as the registration of the club. The company would go on to form a youth team before finally creating a senior team on January 22, 1999 to take part in the third tier with Bao Yingfu as their first head coach. They wouldn't wait long to show their ambition when they would make the play-offs in 2000 before losing to Tianjin Lifei. Still determined to win promotion the club decided to buy the first team of Jilin Aodong as well as their position in Chinese Football Association Jia League on November 23, 2000 for 25,000,000 Yuan, in time for the beginning of the 2001 league season. Under the new general manager Shen Qiang the club brought in new sponsors and Gu Mingchang as the new Head coach, however during this period the club couldn't win promotion to the top tier and the Chairman Song Weiping expressed his disappointment of the team. Song Weiping would soon discover that the reason for his clubs disappointing results when it was discovered that several of his players and coaches were taking bribes, with a 6–0 defeat against Changchun Yatai in the 2001 league season being highlighted, which saw the offending participants banned for a year while the club had three months to reform and re-apply for a CFA playing license. This would see the club would go through several management changes as well as a significant ownership shift, which saw Song Weiping's company Greentown China Holdings Limited take a 96% share of the team for 20,000,000 Yuan in 2005 while Zhejiang University held on to 4%.
Under Wang Zheng as their Head coach the team would start to generally push for promotion, eventually achieving it at the end of the 2006 league season when they came second in the division. The club often found themselves fighting off relegation and would bring in several managers to alleviate the problem, however this wasn't enough during the 2009 league season and the club found themselves in the relegation zone at the end of the season. Surprisingly the club were allowed to stay within the 2010 Chinese Super League after it was discovered that Chengdu Blades and Guangzhou FC were guilty of match-fixing. After gaining a reprieve from relegation the club went on a spending spree by signing several established Chinese internationals such as Du Wei, Li Yan and Wang Song. The signings seemed to work and the clubs results significantly improved throughout the 2010 league campaign, which saw the club achieve their best ever finish of fourth and a chance to play within the AFC Champions League for the first time.
However in 2016 they were relegated to the China League One, after getting second-to-last place in the 2016 Chinese super League. This club is famous for youth training facilities, in 2016 season, they were unfortunately relegated to secong level league because of their bad performances for the season with only 8 wins and 32 points, struggled in demotes.
Name history
Current squad
As of 3 March 2017
First team
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Reserve squad
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Out on loan
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Coaching staff
As of 5 January 2016
Managerial history
As of End of 2015 Chinese league seasonLeague
Youth Team
U-15 Team
Results
All-time League rankings
As of the end of 2016 season.
Key