Chengdu Tiancheng F.C.

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Chengdu Blades F.C.
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Chengdu Tiancheng
Chéngdū Tiānchéng
成都天诚
Shuangliu County
Capacity26,000
Chengdu Tiancheng F.C.
Hanyu Pinyin
Chéngdū Tiānchéng
Zúqiú Jùlèbù
Wade–GilesCh'engtu Hsiehfielien
Tsuch'iu Chülepu
IPA[ʈʂʰə̌ŋtú ɕjêféɪljɛ̌n tsǔtɕʰjǒʊ tɕŷlɤ̂pû]

Chengdu Tiancheng F.C. (

Shuangliu Sports Center in the China League One division. The club was founded on 26 February 1996 and was formerly known as Chengdu Five Bulls named after their first sponsor, the Five Bulls Cigarette Company. However, the club was officially dissolved on 4 January 2015[1] and was subsequently de-registered by the Chinese Football Association on 31 January 2015 due to unpaid salaries to players and staff.[2]

The team was named after English professional football club Sheffield United.[3] On 11 December 2005, Sheffield United took over the organization and changed the club's badge as well as the team's home kit to represent this. The club went on to achieve promotion and their highest ever league position of seventh in the top tier of Chinese football until they were embroiled in a match-fixing scandal in 2009. Punished with relegation the owners eventually sold their majority on 9 December 2010 to Hung Fu Enterprise Co., Ltd and Scarborough Development (China) Co., Ltd.[4][5] On 23 May 2013 the Tiancheng Investment Group announced the acquisition of the club.[6]

History

Formation and promotion

The club was formed on 26 February 1996 under the name Chengdu F.C. and entered into China's

Jiangsu Gige as well as both semi-final losers.[8]

After gaining promotion to the second tier Chengdu started the 1998 campaign well losing only two of their first nine matches in the higher division however in round 10 they were well beaten 8–0 away to

Guangzhou Apollo 5–0 however the team did manage to finish in 8th place.[11]

Match fixing

Main article:
2001 China Jia B League Match Fixing

The team started well for the 2001 season going unbeaten in their first eight games and went on to finish in third position however the season was tarnished when match-fixing allegations came to light involving Chengdu and four other teams. The team's record win over

Tianjin TEDA.[12]

Reformation

In 2002 Chengdu were reformed as a result of the previous season's

Qingdao Etsong Hainiu once again in Deyang. The league competition followed in much the same vein with the team finishing in 9th of 12 however a mid-season venue change to City Stadium in Luzhou can't have helped however Santos did manage to achieve joint top divisional scorer with 10 goals for the club.[13]

The team crashed out yet again in the earliest stage of the Landi FA Cup in 2003 losing 2 of their 3 group matches. The team started using City Stadium in

Jiangsu Sainty 5–1 in October.[14]

Chengdu's poor cup performance continued in 2004 losing 5–3 on penalties after extra time to

Qingdao Etsong Hainiu in the first round of the Landi FA Cup. The poor performance also contributed to their final position of 13th out of 17 that year after another enlargement. This season was also played at two differing home venues, the Provincial Sports Centre in Chengdu as well as City Stadium in Deyang.[15]

The 2005 season was finally played back at one home venue in

Shanghai International. Their poor performance in the league also continued, finishing 11th of 14 in the league.[16]

Foreign Ownership and promotion

Chengdu underwent another name change in January 2006, when they were bought out by the then Chairman of English football team Sheffield United's Kevin McCabe, who renamed the club Chengdu Blades to reflect the new owner's nickname The Blades as well as changing the kits and badge, while the reserve team were sent to Hong Kong and named "Sheffield United (Hong Kong)" to advertise its association with the owning company.[17] Sheffield United's unique international football model would continue with the purchase of Hungarian club Ferencvárosi TC and significant stakes with Australian team Central Coast Mariners FC, which were overseen by Group Executive Director, Michael Farnan who was responsible for the commercial development of the Sheffield United International Group.[18] While this was going on the team's performance improved and by the end of the year they had climbed to 4th position in the table, their 2nd best ever finish at that time.[19]

At the start of the 2007 Chinese league campaign, Chengdu's opening game of the season against

Guangzhou Pharmaceutical
.

The Blades returned to winning ways with 4 straight wins against

Guangzhou Pharmaceutical
.

The Blades snatched the victory 2–1 in the last minute against

Shanghai Stars
4–2 in front of their home crowd.

Chengdu drew their penultimate game of the season 1–1 against Beijing BIT and faced former promotion rivals, 3rd placed Jiangsu Sainty in the final fixture of the China League at home on 27 October which finished 0–0 to ensure a promotion party just two seasons after the buyout by Sheffield United.

First Season in Top Flight

Chengdu had the privilege of staging the opening ceremony of the 2008 season of the Chinese Super League before their first match at home to

Qingdao Jonoon
.

On 12 May, Chengdu was rocked by the

Changsha Ginde on 17 May China League's first ever minute's silence was held before the match, which ended in a 1–1 draw, all gate money from this rounds games around China would also be given to the disaster zones.[22]

In the remaining rounds Chengdu only won one more game beating

Shenzhen
3–0 at home, drew another 9 matches (4 of which were 0–0 draws) and lost the other 10 games. This was enough to finish 13th in table and avoid relegation.

Match fixing and demotion

See also: 2003–2009 Chinese football match-fixing scandals

On 23 February 2010, Chengdu was relegated to China League One in the fallout of a match fixing scandal despite having achieved a 7th-place finish in the Chinese Super League the previous season.[23] It was discovered by the Chinese police that on 22 September 2007 during the team's promotion campaign that the club's President Xu Hongtao and his deputy You Kewei paid Qingdao Hailifeng F.C. up to 500,000 RMB to lose a league game 2–0.[24] Despite this setback under Wang Baoshan as manager, Chengdu Blades won immediate promotion back to the Chinese Super League after finishing second in League One, one point behind winners Guangzhou. With the club's owners, Sheffield United, struggling within their own league, funding for Chengdu Blades was cut and they experienced financial problems during the season, which resulted in the club finishing 15th and in the relegation zone at the end of the season.[25]

Retired numbers

Main article:
Retired numbers in association football

18 –

striker (2005–10). The number was retired in October 2010 in honour of his contribution to Sichuan football.[26]

Results

All-time league rankings

Year Div Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Pos. FA Cup
Super Cup
 AFC Att./G Stadium
1996 3 18 2 1  – 1 1 6 1 3 DNQ DNQ DNQ
1997 3 12 2 1  – 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 6 1 2 DNQ DNQ DNQ
1998 2 22 6 9 7 21 27 −6 27 8 R1 DNQ DNQ
1999 2 22 9 8 5 33 29 4 35 6 R1 DNQ DNQ Chengdu Sports Centre
2000 2 22 7 6 9 25 33 −8 27 8 R1 DNQ DNQ Chengdu Sports Centre
2001 2 22 12 6 4 48 25 23 42 3 R1 DNQ DNQ Chengdu Sports Centre
2002 2 22 7 6 9 31 36 −5 27 9 R2 DNQ DNQ Chengdu Sports Centre
2003 2 26 12 6 8 35 28 7 42 6 R1 DNQ DNQ Chengdu Sports Centre
2004 2 32 6 13 13 46 57 −11 31 13 R1 DNQ DNQ Chengdu Sports Centre
2005 2 26 8 2 16 40 57 −17 26 11 R1 DNQ DNQ Chengdu Sports Centre
2006 2 24 11 5 8 27 18 9 38 4 R1 DNQ DNQ Chengdu Sports Centre
2007 2 24 16 7 1 54 14 40 55 2 NH DNQ DNQ Chengdu Sports Centre
2008 1 30 7 11 12 30 37 −7 32 13 NH DNQ DNQ 12,378
Chengdu Sports Center
2009 1 30 11 6 13 32 39 −7 39 7 2 NH DNQ DNQ 11,873 Chengdu Sports Centre
2010 2 24 17 5 2 56 15 41 56 2 NH DNQ DNQ Chengdu Sports Centre / Dujiangyan Phoenix Stadium
2011 1 30 5 12 13 27 47 −20 27 15 R1 DNQ DNQ 6,443 Chengdu Sports Centre
2012 2 30 11 8 11 33 40 −7 41 9 R3 DNQ DNQ 2,026 Shuangliu Sports Centre
2013 2 30 7 8 15 27 37 −10 29 14 R2 DNQ DNQ 3,591 Shuangliu Sports Centre
2014 2 30 6 8 16 29 45 −16 26 15 R2 DNQ DNQ 1,924 Shuangliu Sports Centre / Dujiangyan Phoenix Stadium
  • ^1 In final group stage. ^2 Relegated for match-fixing scandal.

Key

References

  1. ^ 成都天诚球队不在基地挣扎 球员当务之急找工作 Archived 2015-07-07 at the Wayback Machine at sports.sina.com 2015-01-26 Retrieved 2015-02-09 (in Chinese)
  2. ^ 足协帮球员讨回3千万薪水 设审查组长效监管 Archived 2015-02-07 at the Wayback Machine at sports.sina.com 2015-02-07 Retrieved 2015-02-07 (in Chinese)
  3. ^ Davis, Peter. "Chengdu Blades- The Failed Experiment". Wild East Football. Archived from the original on March 23, 2016. Retrieved April 2, 2016.
  4. ^ 成都谢菲联俱乐部2011赛季首次新闻通气会 Archived December 3, 2013, at the Wayback Machine at sufc.com.cn 2011-03-03 Retrieved 2013-11-22 (in Chinese)
  5. ^ 英投资方决定成都谢菲联不出售 尽快解决欠薪稳军心 Archived 2013-10-29 at the Wayback Machine at sports.sina.com.cn 2010-12-09 Retrieved 2013-11-22 (in Chinese)
  6. ^ 成足更名天诚谢菲联 短期内回中超3年内进亚冠 Archived 2013-12-02 at the Wayback Machine at sports.sohu.com 2013-05-24 Retrieved 2013-11-22 (in Chinese)
  7. ^ China League 1996 Archived 2012-09-29 at the Wayback Machine at rsssf.org 19 Jun 2003 Retrieved 2013-11-22
  8. ^ China League 1997 Archived 2012-09-29 at the Wayback Machine at rsssf.org 21 Jun 2003 Retrieved 2013-11-22
  9. ^ China League 1998 Archived 2012-09-29 at the Wayback Machine at rsssf.org 16 Jul 2003 Retrieved 2013-11-22
  10. ^ China 1999 Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine at rsssf.org 2 Jul 2001 Retrieved 2013-11-22
  11. ^ China 2000 Archived 2012-09-29 at the Wayback Machine at rsssf.org 19 Jun 2003 Retrieved 2013-11-25
  12. ^ China 2001 Archived 2011-05-14 at the Wayback Machine at rsssf.org 19 Jun 2003 Retrieved 2013-11-25
  13. ^ China 2002 Archived 2012-09-29 at the Wayback Machine at rsssf.org 30 Mar 2003 Retrieved 2013-11-25
  14. ^ China 2003 Archived 2011-05-24 at the Wayback Machine at rsssf.org 22 Feb 2013 Retrieved 2013-11-25
  15. ^ China 2004 Archived 2012-09-29 at the Wayback Machine at rsssf.org 7 Apr 2005 Retrieved 2013-11-25
  16. ^ China 2005 Archived 2012-09-29 at the Wayback Machine at rsssf.org 26 Oct 2006 Retrieved 2013-11-25
  17. ^ Hongkong 2008/09 Archived 2013-11-11 at the Wayback Machine at rsssf.org 24 Sep 2009 Retrieved 2013-12-18
  18. ^ Blades' Kevin McCabe buys into Ferencvaros Archived 2017-11-14 at the Wayback Machine at telegraph.co.uk 14 Feb 2008 Retrieved 2013-12-18
  19. ^ China 2006 Archived 2012-09-29 at the Wayback Machine at rsssf.org 8 Mar 2007 Retrieved 2013-11-25
  20. ^ Blades ready for kick-off Archived April 3, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  21. ^ Chengdu staff become aid volunteers Archived July 4, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  22. ^ Blades set to return to action Archived May 17, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  23. ^ Chengdu Blades demoted at fifa.com 23 February 2010 Retrieved 2013-11-26
  24. ^ Blades chief arrested in match-fixing probe Archived 2013-12-02 at the Wayback Machine at fourfourtwo.com 11 December 2009 Retrieved 2013-11-26
  25. ^ Chengdu Blades – The Failed Experiment Archived 2013-08-03 at the Wayback Machine at wildeastfootball.net September 4, 2012 Retrieved 2013-11-26
  26. ^ "姚夏邹侑根昨宣布退役 四川足球告别了一个时代". Archived from the original on 2017-10-26. Retrieved 2012-01-04.
  27. ^ "China – List of Champions". RSSSF. 20 March 2014. Archived from the original on 4 July 2014. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
  28. ^ "成都天诚". sodasoccer.com. Archived from the original on 21 September 2014. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
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