Tianjin Teda F.C.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 07/2016

Full name
Tianjin Teda FC
天津泰达足球俱乐部
Nicknames
津门虎
Tianjin Tigers
Founded
1951; as North China
1957; as Tianjin City FC
1993;  as Tianjin FC (Professional)
February 16, 1998; 18 years ago as Tianjin Teda (Current Name)
Ground
Tianjin Olympic Center Stadium, Tianjin，China
Capacity
54,696
Chairman
Gao Yingqin
Manager
Dragan Okuka
League
Chinese Super League
2015
Super League, 13th

Tianjin TEDA Football Club (simplified Chinese: 天津泰达; traditional Chinese: 天津泰達; pinyin: Tiānjīn Tàidá) is a professional Chinese football club that currently participates in the Chinese Super League under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). 

The team is based in Tianjin and their home stadium is the Tianjin Olympic Center Stadium that has a seating capacity of 54,696. 

Their owners are the Tianjin TEDA Group (The name is derived from the initials of Tianjin Economic – Technological Development Area) a state-owned conglomerate of the People's Republic of China.

The club's predecessor was called Tianjin Football Club and they predominantly played in the top tier, where they won several domestic league and cup titles. 

In 1993, the club was reorganized to become a completely professional football Club. Since then, they have won the 2011 Chinese FA Cup and came runners-up within the 2010 Chinese Super League season.

The club has also set up a sister-city relationship with Australian A-League Club, Melbourne Victory. In 2007, the two clubs played in the Lord Mayor's Cup, which has become an annual off-season match between the two clubs.

History
The clubs first incarnation came in 1951 when the local government sports body decided to take part in China's first fully nationalized football league tournament and decided to merge the best players from Beijing and Tianjin to create the North China team.

The team name was taken from the football team in the 1910 multi-sport event Chinese National Games that also represented the same regions.

The team ended up finishing fourth in their debut season and with the football league gradually expanding the team were allowed to separate themselves from Beijing and the local government sports body were allowed to reformed the club as Tianjin football club to take part in the expanding 1957 Chinese national football league tournament where they ended the campaign as runners-up at the end of the season.

By 1959 the club would hire from within and promoted former team captain Zeng Xuelin as their manager who would return this good faith by winning the 1960 league title as well as the Chinese FA Cup.

For the next several seasons Tianjin would now become regular title contenders, however the Cultural Revolution halted football within the country and when it returned Zeng Xuelin had already left to join the Beijing football team set-up.

The club brought in Sun Xiafeng to manage the team and he would make sure Tianjin were still a force within the league when he guided the club to runners-up spot at the end of the 1974 league season, where they narrowly lost the league title to August 1st football team on goal difference. 

His reign at the club was, however short lived and it wasn't until Tianjin brought in Yan Dejun in 1977 before the club would taste any further success. 

While his first few seasons were not particularly eventful he would go on to assemble a team built-up of young local players such as Lü Hongxiang, Zuo Shusheng and Chen Jingang. 

The players he assembled would go on to mature in the 1980 league season when Tianjin won the league title at the end of the campaign after a twenty-year wait.

With Tianjin allowed to field a B team within the second tier the club would now have a steady supply of youngsters coming into the team to fight for places, which made sure the 1980 title win wasn't a one-off when the club won the 1983 North League title.

This would, however be Yan Dejun's last piece of silverware with the club and despite coming close on several occasions he would leave the team in 1987. 

It was also during this period that the Chinese Football Association were demanding more professionalism from all the Chinese teams, unfortunately for the club was transitional period for the team and they were relegated to the second tier at the end of the 1991 league season.

Strangely enough the clubs management decided to miss the 1992 league season and spent the whole year in the Netherlands preparing the squad for full professionalism, which the club converted to in 1993.

Professionalism
With the Chinese football leagues fully professional by 1994, Tianjin brought in Lin Xinjiang to manage the club, where he guided them to a runners-up position and promotion back into the top tier at the end of the season.

With the club back in the top tier, they soon gained their first sponsorship deal with Samsung in 1995 while on the field they achieved enough to remain within the league until Lin Xinjiang left the club and they were soon relegated to the second tier once again at the end of the 1997 league season.

On February 16, 1998, the TEDA Group (derived from the initials of Tianjin Economic – Technological Development Area) took over the club for 50 million yuan, along with lower league local rivals Tianjin Vanke, to form Tianjin Teda for the start of the 1998 Chinese league season.

The club would bring in their first ever foreign coach and immediately win promotion back to the top tier by winning the division title.

The club struggled to remain within the top division and often found themselves in the lower half of the league.

While this may have been enough to avoid relegation for the previous seasons, the Chinese Football Association decided to employ an averaging system for the 2003 league campaign, which would also take into account the 2002 league results. 

It would look like the club would be relegated once again unless they beat title chasers Shanghai International on the final league game of the season. 

It was discovered that the result was too good to be true and that the general manager Yang Yifeng bribed the Shanghai International players Shen Si, Qi Hong, Jiang Jin and Li Ming (1975) to forfeit the game.

With the Chinese FA attempting to clean up its image over match-fixing, they decided that despite the incidents taking place over 10 years ago, it would retroactively punish the club on February 18, 2013, with a 1 million Yuan fine and a 6-point deduction at the beginning of the 2013 Chinese Super League season.

While Tianjin remained in the Chinese top tier while it re-branded itself as the Chinese Super League, they achieved little until the club brought in former player Zuo Shusheng to manage the team during the 2008 league season, when he revitalised the team and guided the club to their first ever entry to the AFC Champions League.] 

At the beginning of the 2009 league season, the club brought in Li Guangyi as their new general manager; however, on August 18, the players went on strike during a training session after it was discovered he wanted to change the club's pay system, which would have shrunken the player wages, and it wasn't until the club's owner Liu Huiwen heard the players' representatives before the strike ended.

After the strike, the leaders of it such as Chinese internationals Yang Jun and Han Yanming and Chinese U-23 player Tan Wangsong would be frozen out of the team and eventually released, while back on the field the club's results declined as they were unable to replicate the previous season's achievements.

By the following season, the club would bring in former Chinese international manager Arie Haan, where he guided the club to a runners-up spot at the end of the 2010 league season. 

He would then guide the club to a last 16 position within the 2011 AFC Champions League and then lead the club to win their first piece of professional silverware when they won the 2011 Chinese FA Cup.

Players