Changchun Yatai F.C.

Changchun Yatai Football Club () 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 Changchun, Jilin and their home stadium is the Changchun Stadium that has a seating capacity of 38,500. The club's founder and main investor is the private Chinese conglomerate Jilin Yatai Group.
The club was formed on June 6, 1996 before making their debut in the third tier of China's football league pyramid in the 1997 league season. In 2000 they bought a position into the second division after they merged with Bayi Chaoneng. In 2001 they finished runners-up within their division, however they were denied promotion after they were embroiled in a match-fixing scandal. The club would reform and re-apply for a CFA playing license before they eventually gained promotion to China's top flight at the end of the 2005 league campaign. In the 2007 Chinese Super League they won the 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.
Club history.
Changchun Yatai was founded on 6 June 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. The club would select a dragon kicking a ball as their crest while assembling the club's senior team and to make sure they had a competitive youth system they also brought 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 20 million yuan. 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 fifteen million yuan, while during the season the team maintained an unbeaten home record but still finished in a disappointing fifth at the end of the season. The following season the club's 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 promotion to the top tier for the first time, however it was soon discovered that the 6 October 2001 game that Changchun won 6–0 against Zhejiang was fixed. This saw the club denied promotion, had all offending participants banned for a year while the club had three months to reform and re-apply for a CFA playing license. Despite this Yin Tiesheng stayed on and promoted future Chinese internationals Du Zhenyu, Zhang Xiaofei and Cao Tianbao from the club's youth team which was assembled from Shenyang into the senior team. These players in 2003 would go on to win the Jia B (second level) title, but the club were not promoted due to the creation of the Super League.
Yin Tiesheng would leave the club in 2004 to take the Chinese U20 head coach position and Chen Jingang was brought in as the new manager. Within his reign Chen Jingang guided the club to a runners-up spot in the China League One division in 2005 and promotion to the Super League. In the club's debut season they finished fourth, however Chen Jingang was relieved of his duties after he lost the dressing room by threatening to dock player wagers if he was unsatisfied with their performances. In 2007 Gao Hongbo was brought as the new manager and in his debut season he won the Chinese Super League title with them. 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 on 12 March 2008 in a 2–1 victory 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 affected the club's league performance and Gao Hongbo was fired during the season.
On September 2008 Li Shubin was brought in to manage the club and to see out the remainder of the 2008 league season, however under his leadership results improved and the club went on to have an industrious following campaign that saw them come runners-up at the end of the 2009 Chinese Super League campaign. 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 9 March 2010 Changchun beat Indonesian side Persipura Jayapura 9–0, making the victory the largest ever within the AFC Champions League for a Chinese side. 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 fared little better and at the beginning of the 2012 Chinese Super League season the club brought in Svetozar Šapurić as the club's new manager.
In the 2018 Chinese Super League, Changchun underperformed in the last third of the season, finishing 15th. The team was relegated to the China League One. The 2019 season saw Changchun come close to earning promotion immediately back into the top tier, with a ten-game unbeaten streak in the middle of the season. Ultimately, though, the club slipped towards the end of the season and finished the campaign in fifth place. However, Changchun won the 2020 China League One title and returned to the Chinese Super League after a two-year absence.
Current squad.
Reserve squad.
"As of 20 November 2020"
Retired numbers.
12 – Club Supporters (the 12th Man) retired in 2017.
Honours.
League.
Chinese Super League
China League One/Jia-B League
Results.
All-time League rankings
"As of the end of 2020 season".
Key