2018 Chinese Super League

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Football league season

Guizhou Hengfeng
(14 April 2018)

Average attendance	24,053
← 2017 2019 →

The 2018 Ping An Chinese Football Association Super League (

Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao, who had won seven consecutive titles beginning with the 2011 season.^[4]

Policy regarding foreign players and U-23 domestic players continued to change in this season. At least one domestic player who is under the age of 23 (born on or after 1 January 1995) must be in the starting eleven, the same as in the 2017 season.

Hong Kong Football Association, Macau Football Association or Chinese Taipei Football Association (except goalkeepers) as a native player.^[6] According to the Chinese FA, a non-naturalized player is a player who was first registered as a professional footballer in one of the three aforementioned football associations. For still more complexity concerning non-naturalized players, players from Hong Kong and Macau must be passport holders of the Hong Kong SAR or the Macau SAR, and players from Taiwan must be citizens of Taiwan.^[7] Policy of U-23 domestic players was relaxed in August for the 2018 Asian Games.^[8] It existed in name only from October when China U-25 training team was organized.^[9]

Club changes

Clubs promoted from 2017 China League One

• Dalian Yifang
• Beijing Renhe

Clubs relegated to 2018 China League One

• Yanbian Funde
• Liaoning F.C.

Beijing Renhe and Dalian Yifang return to the division after a 2-year absence and a 3-year absence respectively. Liaoning were relegated after an 8-year spell in the Chinese top-flight, while Yanbian Funde were relegated to China League One after spending 2 seasons in the Chinese Super League.

Name changes

• Guizhou Hengfeng Zhicheng F.C. changed their name to
  Guizhou Hengfeng F.C. in December 2017.^[10]

Clubs

Clubs and locations

Team[11]	Head Coach	City	Stadium	Capacity	2017 season
Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao	Fabio Cannavaro	Guangzhou	Tianhe Stadium	58,500	1st
Shanghai SIPG	Vítor Pereira	Shanghai	Shanghai Stadium	56,842	2nd
Tianjin Quanjian	Park Choong-kyun	Tianjin	Haihe Educational Football Stadium	28,046	3rd
Hebei China Fortune	Chris Coleman	Langfang	Langfang Stadium	30,040	4th
Guangzhou R&F	Dragan Stojković	Guangzhou	Yuexiushan Stadium	18,000	5th
Shandong Luneng Taishan	Li Xiaopeng	Jinan	Jinan Olympic Sports Luneng Stadium	56,808	6th
Changchun Yatai	Chen Jingang	Changchun	Changchun Stadium	41,638	7th
Guizhou Hengfeng	Dan Petrescu	Guiyang	Guiyang Olympic Sports Center	51,636	8th
Beijing Sinobo Guoan	Roger Schmidt	Beijing	Workers' Stadium	66,161	9th
Chongqing Dangdai Lifan	Jordi Cruyff	Chongqing	Chongqing Olympic Sports Center	58,680	10th
Shanghai Greenland Shenhua	Wu Jingui	Shanghai	Hongkou Football Stadium	33,060	11th
Jiangsu Suning	Cosmin Olăroiu	Nanjing	Nanjing Olympic Sports Center	61,443	12th
Tianjin TEDA	Uli Stielike	Tianjin	Tianjin Olympic Center Stadium	54,696	13th
Henan Jianye	Wang Baoshan	Zhengzhou	Zhengzhou Hanghai Stadium	29,860	14th
Dalian Yifang P	Bernd Schuster	Dalian	Dalian Sports Center	61,000	CL1, 1st
Beijing Renhe P	Luis García Plaza	Beijing	Fengtai Stadium	31,043	CL1, 2nd

Tianjin TEDA

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Location of teams in 2018 Chinese Super League

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Tianjin Quanjian	Fabio Cannavaro	Resigned	6 November 2017[12]	Pre-season	Paulo Sousa	6 November 2017[13]
Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao	Luiz Felipe Scolari	End of contract	9 November 2017		Fabio Cannavaro	9 November 2017[14]
Shanghai SIPG	André Villas-Boas	End of contract	30 November 2017[15]		Vítor Pereira	12 December 2017[16]
Shandong Luneng Taishan	Felix Magath	End of contract	1 December 2017[17]		Li Xiaopeng	1 December 2017[17]
Chongqing Dangdai Lifan	Chang Woe-ryong	Mutual consent	10 December 2017[18]		Paulo Bento	11 December 2017[19]
Henan Jianye	Guo Guangqi (caretaker)	End of caretaker spell	18 December 2017		Dragan Talajić	18 December 2017[20]
Dalian Yifang	Juan Ramón López Caro	End of contract	26 December 2017		Ma Lin	26 December 2017[21]
Dalian Yifang	Ma Lin	Sacked	19 March 2018	16th	Bernd Schuster	19 March 2018[22]
Jiangsu Suning	Fabio Capello	Mutual consent	28 March 2018[23]	12th	Cosmin Olăroiu	28 March 2018[24]
Henan Jianye	Dragan Talajić	Sacked	21 April 2018[25]	14th	Chang Woe-ryong	26 April 2018[26]
Hebei China Fortune	Manuel Pellegrini	Mutual consent	19 May 2018[27]	8th	Chris Coleman	10 June 2018[28]
Guizhou Hengfeng	Gregorio Manzano	Sacked	7 June 2018	16th	Dan Petrescu	7 June 2018[29]
Chongqing Dangdai Lifan	Paulo Bento	Resigned	22 July 2018	13th	Hao Haitao (caretaker)	22 July 2018[30]
Chongqing Dangdai Lifan	Hao Haitao (caretaker)	Sacked	8 August 2018	14th	Jordi Cruyff	8 August 2018[31]
Henan Jianye	Chang Woe-ryong	Mutual consent	27 September 2018	15th	Wang Baoshan	27 September 2018[32]
Tianjin Quanjian	Paulo Sousa	Resigned	4 October 2018	13th	Shen Xiangfu (caretaker)	4 October 2018[33]
Tianjin Quanjian	Shen Xiangfu (caretaker)	Joined China U-25 training team	5 October 2018[34]	13th	Park Choong-kyun	18 October 2018[35]

Foreign players

Clubs can register a total of six foreign players over the course of the season, but the number of foreign players allowed on each CSL team at any given time is limited to four. A maximum of three foreign players can be fielded in each match.[5] In addition, each club can register a Hong Kong, Macau, or Taiwan player of Chinese descent (excluding goalkeepers), provided that he registered as a professional footballer in one of those three association for the first time, as a native player.^[6]

• Players name in bold indicates the player is registered during the mid-season transfer window.
• Players in ITALICS have left the club, or are off the roster due to being injured or sent to the reserves.
• Players that are not in bold or italicized have been signed by the club, but exceed the 4 foreign players on the roster at any one time.

Team	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4	Hong Kong/Macau/ Taiwan Players1	Former players
Beijing Renhe	Augusto Fernández	Benjamin Moukandjo	Ayub Masika	Makhete Diop		Ivo Jaime Ayoví
Beijing Sinobo Guoan	Renato Augusto	Cédric Bakambu	Jonathan Soriano	Jonathan Viera
Changchun Yatai	Lasse Vibe	Odion Ighalo	Adrian Mierzejewski	Nemanja Pejčinović		Marinho Anzur Ismailov
Chongqing Dangdai Lifan	Luiz Fernandinho	Fernandinho Henrique	Alan Kardec	Sebá		Nicolás Aguirre
Dalian Yifang	Nicolás Gaitán	Yannick Carrasco	Duvier Riascos	Nyasha Mushekwi		José Fonte
Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao	Alan Carvalho	Ricardo Goulart	Paulinho	Talisca		Nemanja Gudelj Kim Young-gwon
Guangzhou R&F	Renatinho	Júnior Urso	Eran Zahavi	Duško Tošić		Tan Chun Lok Marko Perović
Guizhou Hengfeng	Kevin Boli	Nikica Jelavić	Bubacarr Trawally	Mario Suárez	Festus Baise 2	Tjaronn Chery
Hebei China Fortune	Ezequiel Lavezzi	Javier Mascherano	Hernanes	Ayoub El Kaabi		Gervinho
Henan Jianye	Ivo	Fernando Karanga	Christian Bassogog	Ricardo Vaz Tê		Orlando Sá Cala
Jiangsu Suning	Alex Teixeira	Éder	Gabriel Paletta			Ramires Richmond Boakye
Shandong Luneng Taishan	Gil	Róger Guedes	Diego Tardelli	Graziano Pellè		Papiss Cissé
Shanghai Greenland Shenhua	Fredy Guarín	Giovanni Moreno	Óscar Romero	Demba Ba		Obafemi Martins
Shanghai SIPG	Elkeson	Hulk	Oscar	Odil Ahmedov
Tianjin Quanjian	Alexandre Pato	Anthony Modeste	Kwon Kyung-won			Axel Witsel
Tianjin TEDA	Johnathan	Felix Bastians	Frank Acheampong	John Obi Mikel

• Hong Kong's, Macau's, or Chinese Taipei
  's football association for the first time, they are recognized as native players. Otherwise they are recognized as foreign players.
• ^2 Festus Baise is a naturalized citizen of Hong Kong SAR; however, since his first registered football association was Hong Kong and is the passport holder of Hong Kong SAR, he would be considered as a native player.
• ^3 Player that has returned from a loan spell. It is unsure whether they will be registered for the season or sent out on loan again, but they are now on the wage bills of their respective clubs.