Hebei F.C.

Hebei Football Club (simplified Chinese: 河北足球俱乐部; traditional Chinese: 河北足球俱樂部; pinyin: Héběi Zúqiú Jùlèbù) was a professional Chinese football club that participated in the Chinese Super League division under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team was based in Langfang, Hebei. The club was dissolved in March 2023.^[1]

Hebei F.C.
河北足球俱乐部

Full name	Hebei Football Club
Founded	2009; 15 years ago (2009)
Dissolved	29 March 2023; 20 months ago (2023-03-29)
Ground	Langfang Stadium
Capacity	30,040
Website	http://english.hebeifootball.com/
Home colours Away colours

According to Forbes, Hebei was the 7th most valuable football team in China, with a team value of $90 million, and an estimated revenue of $22 million in 2015.^[2]

History

Hebei Zhongji was founded on 28 May 2010 by the Hebei football association and Hebei Zhongji Group who promised to invest three million Yuan a season for next four campaigns.^[3] They registered to play within China League Two, third tier of the Chinese football league system, as Hebei Yilin Shanzhuang (Simplified Chinese: 河北依林山庄) for sponsorship reasons in the 2011 league season. They failed to advance into the Play-offs after finishing in 5th place in the group stage. On 17 October 2011, the cooperation relationship between Hebei FA and Hebei Zhongji Group was terminated and Hebei Zhongji Group took full ownership of the club while the players who were owned by Hebei FA split into a new team called Hebei Youth.^[4] In the 2012 league season, Hebei Zhongji finished in 1st place in the North Group with 18 wins, 5 draws and only 1 defeat, however they were knocked out in the quarter-finals of the Play-offs by Hubei China-Kyle with the score at 1–1, losing on the away goals rule. On 16 August 2013 Guo Ruilong was brought in to manage the team for the rest of the 2013 league season, however during his brief tenure at the club he quickly led them to promotion after finishing runners-up at the end of the campaign.^[5] Huang Yang was brought in to coach the team during the off season while on December 26, 2013, the club announced that Uruguayan Nelson Agresta would be the club's first foreign manager.^[6]

On 27 January 2015, they changed the team name to Hebei China Fortune (Simplified Chinese: 河北华夏幸福 Archived 2013-04-01 at the Wayback Machine) after being purchased by China Fortune Land Development. Serbian manager Radomir Antić signed a three-year contract with the club on the same day.^[7] They changed the club name to Hebei China Fortune F.C. in December 2015 after winning promotion to Chinese Super League in the 2015 season. The club has since expanded its bid for league success by landing international stars such as Gervinho and Ezequiel Lavezzi.^[8] In August 2016, the Chilean Manuel Pellegrini became manager of the club,^[9] as part of a larger plan for Hebei China Fortune F.C. and Chinese football to make a great leap forward by the end of the decade. This process continued with the appointment of Chris Coleman on 10 June 2018.^[10]

Ownership and naming history

Year	Owner	Club name	Sponsored team name
2011	Hebei Zhongji Group	Hebei Zhongji Football Club	Hebei Yilinshanzhuang
2012–2014
2015	China Fortune Land Development		Hebei China Fortune
2016–2020		Hebei China Fortune Football Club[8]
2021–2022		Hebei Football Club[11]	Hebei Football Club

Managerial history

Nationality	Manager	Duration		Departure reason
		Start	Finish
	Wei Yuanhao	May 28, 2010	October 13, 2011	Mutual consent
	Zhang Yandong	October 14, 2011	August 15, 2013
	Guo Ruilong	August 16, 2013	December 3, 2013
	Huang Yang	December 4, 2013	December 25, 2013
	Nelson Agresta	December 26, 2013	August 14, 2014	Sacked
	Alejandro Larrea	August 14, 2014	December 31, 2014	Mutual consent
	Radomir Antić	January 27, 2015	August 18, 2015
	Li Tie	August 18, 2015	August 27, 2016	Sacked
	Manuel Pellegrini	August 27, 2016	May 19, 2018	Mutual consent
	Chris Coleman	June 10, 2018	May 15, 2019	Sacked
	Xie Feng	May 15, 2019	March 28, 2021	Mutual consent
	Kim Jong-boo	March 28, 2021	December 16, 2022	Mutual consent

Results

All-time league rankings

As of the end of 2022 season.^[12][13]

Year	Div	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Pos.	FA Cup	Super Cup	AFC	Att./G	Stadium
2011	3	14	4	4	6	14	16	−2	16	5 1	DNE	DNQ	DNQ		Yutong International Sports Center
2012	3	26	18	7	1	50	11	39	59 1	6[14]	R2	DNQ	DNQ	4,783
2013	3	19	11	4	4	40	13	27	27 1	RU	R2	DNQ	DNQ
2014	2	30	6	11	13	31	54	−23	29	14	R2	DNQ	DNQ	6,239
2015	2	30	18	6	6	53	30	23	60	RU	R4	DNQ	DNQ	7,796	Qinhuangdao Olympic Sports Center Stadium
2016	1	30	11	7	12	34	38	−4	40	7	QF	DNQ	DNQ	18,469
2017	1	30	15	7	8	55	38	17	52	4	R4	DNQ	DNQ	18,054
2018	1	30	10	9	11	46	50	−4	39	6	R16	DNQ	DNQ	16,029	Langfang Stadium
2019	1	30	9	6	15	37	55	-18	33	11	R4	DNQ	DNQ	17,799
2020	1	20	7	4	9	32	44	-12	25	8	R1	DNQ	DNQ
2021	1	22	6	7	9	15	28	-13	25	8	R4	DNQ	DNQ
2022	1	34	2	0	32	18	115	-97	-3 2	18	R2	DNQ	DNQ

• ^1 In group stage.
• ^2 Hebei had 3 points deducted due to unpaid salaries on 5 November 2022 and had 6 points deducted due to unpaid salaries on 23 November 2022.

Key

China top division   China second division   China third division W   Winners RU   Runners-up 3   Third place   Relegated

Pld = Played W = Games won D = Games drawn L = Games lost F = Goals for A = Goals against Pts = Points Pos = Final position

DNQ = Did not qualify DNE = Did not enter NH = Not held  – = Does not exist R1 = Round 1 R2 = Round 2 R3 = Round 3 R4 = Round 4

F = Final SF = Semi-finals QF = Quarter-finals R16 = Round of 16 Group = Group stage GS2 = Second Group stage QR1 = First Qualifying Round QR2 = Second Qualifying Round QR3 = Third Qualifying Round

References

1. "2023职业联赛准入名单：广州城、昆山、陕西未在列" (in Chinese). Dongqiudi. 29 March 2023. Archived from the original on 29 March 2023. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
2. "Chinese Soccer's Most Valuable Teams". Forbes. Archived from the original on September 15, 2016. Retrieved August 14, 2016.
3. 河北中基足球俱乐部简介 (in Chinese). hebeifootball.com. Archived from the original on March 25, 2012. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
4. 最新消息:河北足球正式开始职业俱乐部商业运作 (in Chinese). hebeifootball.com. October 18, 2011. Archived from the original on December 11, 2013. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
5. 河北中基昨日赴昆明冬训 不排除选外籍主帅 (in Chinese). news.gmw.cn. December 3, 2013. Archived from the original on February 5, 2014. Retrieved July 12, 2015.
6. 前泰达主帅重返中国 乌拉圭人内尔松挂帅河北中基 (in Chinese). sports.sina.com.cn. December 24, 2013. Archived from the original on July 14, 2015. Retrieved July 12, 2015.
7. 河北中基更名河北华夏幸福 安蒂奇上任签约三年 (in Chinese). sohu.com. January 27, 2015. Archived from the original on January 28, 2015. Retrieved January 27, 2015.
8. 足协发布公告：河北中基正式更名为河北华夏幸福 (in Chinese). sina.com. December 15, 2015. Archived from the original on August 8, 2016. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
9. "Manuel Pellegrini: Ex-Manchester City manager joins Hebei China Fortune". BBC Sport. 27 August 2016. Archived from the original on 22 May 2018. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
10. 华夏宣布前威尔士主帅执教 曾在欧洲杯闯进4强. sina (in Chinese). 2018-06-10. Archived from the original on 2018-12-30. Retrieved 2018-06-10.
11. "官方：河北华夏幸福正式更名为河北足球俱乐部". Dongqiudi. 10 February 2021. Archived from the original on 1 May 2021. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
12. "China – List of Champions". RSSSF. March 20, 2014. Archived from the original on July 4, 2014. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
13. 河北中基 (in Chinese). sodasoccer.com. Archived from the original on August 10, 2014. Retrieved July 28, 2014.
14. 2012年中国足球协会乙级联赛决赛阶段比赛名次 Archived September 24, 2015, at the Wayback Machine fa.org.cn March 30, 2013 Retrieved April 8, 2016

External links

• Official site (in English)