Hangzhou Greentown F.C.
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| Full name | Hangzhou Greentown FC 杭州绿城足球俱乐部 |
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| Nickname(s) | Greentown 绿城 Green Giants 绿巨人 |
| Founded | 14 January 1998 |
| Ground | Hangzhou Huanglong Stadium |
| Capacity | 52,672 |
| Owner | Song Weiping |
| Chairman | Du Ping |
| Manager | Hong Myung-bo |
| League | China League One |
| 2016 | Super League, 15th (relegated) |
| Website | Club home page |
Hangzhou Greentown Football Club (simplified Chinese: 杭州绿城; traditional Chinese: 杭州綠城; pinyin: Hángzhōu Lǜchéng) is a professional Chinese football club that currently participates in the China League One division (second division) under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang and their home stadium is the Hangzhou Huanglong Stadium that has a seating capacity of 52,672. The club's main investor is the Zhejiang-based Greentown China Holdings Limited company, which is owned by real estate tycoon Song Weiping. Greentown became the first sports club from Hangzhou with 1 million followers on Weibo.
The club was founded on January 14, 1998 and they made their debut in the third tier of China's football league pyramid in the 1999 league season. On November 23, 2000 the club bought the first team of Jilin Aodong as well as their position in the second division for 25 million Yuan. They have subsequently won promotion to the top tier after finishing runners-up in the 2006 league season and the highest position they have ever finished is fourth in the 2010 Chinese Super League season.
Zhejiang Greentown Football Club Co., Ltd. was officially established on January 14, 1998 with a capital of 16,000,000 Yuan and Zeng Leming was appointed as their general manager. Greentown Real Estate Company, Hangzhou Qiantang Real Estate Company, Zhejiang University and Zhejiang Provincial Football Association all participated in the creation as well as the registration of the club. The company would go on to form a youth team before finally creating a senior team on January 22, 1999 to take part in the third tier with Bao Yingfu as their first head coach. They wouldn't wait long to show their ambition when they would make the play-offs in 2000 before losing to Tianjin Lifei. Still determined to win promotion the club decided to buy the first team of Jilin Aodong as well as their position in Chinese Football Association Jia League on November 23, 2000 for 25,000,000 Yuan, in time for the beginning of the 2001 league season. Under the new general manager Shen Qiang the club brought in new sponsors and Gu Mingchang as the new Head coach, however during this period the club couldn't win promotion to the top tier and the Chairman Song Weiping expressed his disappointment of the team. Song Weiping would soon discover that the reason for his clubs disappointing results when it was discovered that several of his players and coaches were taking bribes, with a 6–0 defeat against Changchun Yatai in the 2001 league season being highlighted, which saw the offending participants banned for a year while the club had three months to reform and re-apply for a CFA playing license. This would see the club would go through several management changes as well as a significant ownership shift, which saw Song Weiping's company Greentown China Holdings Limited take a 96% share of the team for 20,000,000 Yuan in 2005 while Zhejiang University held on to 4%.
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