Changchun Yatai (Simplified Chinese: 长春亚泰) is a professional Chinese football club based in the 25,000 seater Development Area Stadium in Changchun, Jilin while currently participating in the Chinese Super League where they are managed by Svetozar Šapurić. They were founded on June 6, 1996 by the Jilin Yatai Group and started in the Yi Division but failed to win promotion until they bought a position into the upper division with the merging of Bayi Chaoneng in 2000. The new team finished fifth and maintained an unbeaten record at home before finishing second the following season, however the club did not gain promotion to the Chinese Super League until they gained another runners-up position in the 2005 league season and premotion to the 2006 Chinese Super League for the first time. In the 2007 Chinese Super League they surprised everybody by winning the 2007 league title and participated in the 2008 AFC Champions League for the first time. They have since gone on to come second within 2009 Chinese Super League and also participated in the 2010 AFC Champions League.
[edit] Club history
Changchun Yatai was founded on June 6, 1996 by local conglomerate Jilin Yatai Group in Changchun, Jilin to take part in the recently fully professionalized league system, which allowed private enterprises to own their own clubs.[1] Before assembling the clubs senior team the club would make sure they had a competitive youth system by bringing in the best youth players from Shenyang before moving them into their recently created football training base at a cost of two million yuan, while the total cost of starting the whole enterprise would end up being twenty million yuan.[2] The club would bring in Tang Pengju to manage their team and start at the bottom of the Chinese football league system within the third tier (Yi Division) where they finish in fifth at the end of the season.[3] For the next several seasons the club achieved very little until they bought a position into the second tier when the club took over Bayi Chaoneng at the beginning of the 2000 league season for fifthteen million yuan, while during the season the team maintained an unbeaten home record but still finished in a dissapointing fifth at the end of the season.[4] The following season the clubs manager Yin Tiesheng looked like he could improve upon last years results when he guided the club to a runners-up position and what looked like premotion to the top tier for the first time, however it was soon discovered that the October 6, 2001 game that Changchun won 6-0 against Zhejiang was fixed. This saw the club denied premotion, had all offending participants banned for a year while the club had three months to reform and re-apply for a CFA playing license.[5] Despite this Yin Tiesheng stayed on and premoted future Chinese internationals Du Zhenyu, Zhang Xiaofei and Cao Tianbao from the clubs youth team which was assembled from Shenyang into the senior team. The move would eventually become a huge success and by the end of the 2003 league season Changchun would go on to win their first piece of silverware when they won the division title.[6]
Unfortunately for Changchun when they won the division title there was no premotion that season, however the club would eventually bring in a new manager in Chen Jingang who would soon see the club win premotion when he guided the club to a runners-up position at the end of the 2005 league season and premotion to the Chinese top tier for the first time.[7] In the clubs debut season within the top tier they surprised many when they finished fourth, however dispite this Chen Jingang would leave the club at the end of the season and was replaced by Gao Hongbo. The move would turn out to be fantastic for the club and with the new signing of Côte d'Ivoire international Guillaume Dah Zadi partnering Honduras international Elvis Scott in attack being a huge success the club would surprise even more people when they unexpectedly won the Chinese Super League at the end of the 2007 league season.[8] This would see Changchun allowed entry to the 2008 AFC Champions League for the first time along with Beijing Guoan and played their first game against Vietnamese football club Bình Dương F.C. on March 12, 2008 in a 2-1 victory[9] While the club finished the group runners-up only one team was allowed to go through the knock out stages and the club crashed out of the tournament, this unfortunately effected the clubs league performance and Gao Hongbo was fired during the season. The club would then eventually bring in Li Shubin to stabilize the team and through the teams consistant performances he helped guide the club to a runners-up spot at the end of the 2009 Chinese Super League season.[10] Despite achieving consistently good performances for the team the club decided that they wanted Shen Xiangfu to manage the team for the following season and within one of his first games for the club in the 2010 AFC Champions League on March 9, 2010 Changchun beat Indonesien side Persipura Jayapura 9-0, making the victory the largest ever within the AFC Champions League for a Chinese side.[11] Shen Xiangfu was however, unable to guide Changchun into the knock out stages despite there being two places up for grabs and his league performances were not impressive, despite this the club held on to him for another season where he faired little better and at the beginning of the 2012 Chinese Super League season the club brought in Svetozar Šapurić as the clubs new manager.[12]
[edit] Crest history
[edit] Results
- As of the end of 2011 season
All-time League rankings
| Season |
1997 |
1998 |
1999 |
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
2009 |
2010 |
2011 |
| Division |
3 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
| Position |
5 |
5[1] |
5 |
5 |
2[2] |
8 |
1[3] |
5 |
2 |
4 |
1 |
6 |
2 |
9 |
7 |
- ^1 in group stage
- ^2 Changchun Yatai's promotion to Jia-A league was cancelled due to match fixing.
- ^3 no promotion
[edit] Performance in AFC competitions
-
- 2008: Group Stage
- 2010: Group Stage
[edit] Current squad
As of 23 February 2012[13]
Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
[edit] 2011 Season Transfers
In:
Out:
[edit] Coaching staff
Source: Sina.com
[edit] Honours
[edit] League
- Chinese Super League Champion (2007)
- Chinese Jia B Champion (2003)
- Chinese Jia B runner-up (2005,2001)
U17 team
- Adidas Youth League Champions: 2008
[edit] Famous players
[edit] Former coaches
[edit] References
[edit] External links
Liu Yuming
Svetozar Šapurić
Tang Pengju (1997-1998)
Ernst Middendorp (2008)
