Qingdao HainiuQingdao Hainiu青岛海牛

Qingdao Hainiu Football Club (simplified Chinese: 青岛海牛; traditional Chinese: 青島海牛; pinyin: Qingdao Zhongneng, known as Hai-niu or literally Sea Bull) is a professional Chinese football club that currently participates in the China League Two division under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is based in Qingdao, Shandong and their home stadium is the Qingdao Tiantai Stadium that has a seating capacity of 20,525. Their current owners are the privately owned cable manufacturer Qingdao Jonoon Group.

The club was founded as Shandong Economic and Trade Commission Football Club in 1990 and started at the bottom of the Chinese football league pyramid in the third tier. On December 31, 1993 they became the first professional club in Qingdao and changed its name to Qingdao Hainiu. They went on to establish themselves as a top-tier club and won their first major trophy in 2002 by winning the Chinese FA Cup on November 16, 2002 when they beat Liaoning Bird. In the mid-2010s the club started to decline and fell down two leagues, being relegated twice in 4 seasons.

History

Qingdao Jonoon Football Club started out as Shandong Economic and Trade Commission F.C. in 1990 by some retired footballers at the corporation affiliated with Shandong economic and trade commission associated with some workers at Qingdao Municipal Sanatorium. After playing in the Chinese Yi League for three seasons, the club finished as Second Division Champions and won promotion to the Chinese Jia-B League in 1992 – the club's first league title. As required by Chinese Football Association, on 31 December 1993, the club set up a professional system and became the first professional football club in Qingdao. Subsequently, the club was renamed to Qingdao Manatee F.C., the Chinese name for manatee, "海牛 (hainiu, literally 'sea bull')", also being the nickname for the foghorn in Tuandao Lighthouse due to the sound it emits.

Qingdao Manatee finished as the Chinese Jia-B League Champions and won p

This page also has a version in other languages :  Циндао Чжуннэн (russian)