Bayi Football Team
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| Full name | The People's Liberation Army Bayi Football Club 中国人民解放军八一足球俱乐部 |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | August 1st |
| Founded | 1927 (Amateur) 1951 (Semi-pro) |
| Dissolved | 2003 |
| League |
Chinese Jia-A League Chinese Jia-B League |
August First Football Team (Chinese: 八一; pinyin: Bāyī) or its full name The People's Liberation Army Bayi Football Club (Simplified Chinese: 中国人民解放军八一足球俱乐部) was a football team under the sport branch of the People's Liberation Army (Simplified Chinese: 中国人民解放军) that played in China's football league system between 1951 and 2003 where they were predominantly based in Beijing.
The club was formed on August 1, 1927 by the People's Liberation Army and chose the name of Bayi (八一) meaning Ba (八) is for eight and Yi (一) is for one. Initially they started out as an amateur team who occasionally took part in multi-sport events until they took part in the 1951 inaugural Chinese national football league tournament. With their unprecedented monopoly of football talent taken from every army football team in the country they would establish themselves as one of the top teams within the league winning five national league titles in their history.
When the Chinese football league became a fully professional unit in the 1994 league season the club were given special dispensation to remain as semi-professional as possible by having all their members remain active military members while abstaining from foreign players and sponsorship. The cost of professionalism would see the club take on offers from cities that included Taiyuan, Xi'an, Kunming, Shijiazhuang, XinXiang, Liuzhou, Xiangtan and Hunan for financial reason. They also took sponsorship and changed their name to Bayi Zhengbang and Bayi Xiangtan, however these measures could not stop the club from relegation in 2003. With a loss in prize money and stricter regulations from the Chinese Football Association the People's Liberation Army disbanded the club.
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