Shanghai Zobon
 |
|
| Full name | Shanghai Zobon Football Club Pudong Zobon Team 上海中邦足球俱乐部浦东中邦队 |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | – |
| Founded | 2003 |
| Dissolved | 27 December 2012 |
| Ground |
Yuanshen Sports Centre Stadium, Shanghai, China |
| Capacity | 16,000 |
Shanghai Pudong Zobon F.C. Pudong Zobon Team (Simplified Chinese: 上海中邦足球俱乐部浦东中邦队) is a defunct football club that predominantly competed in the China League One division. Founded by Zhu Jun, the CEO of The9 Limited in 2003 the club played their home games in the 16,000 seater Yuanshen Sports Centre Stadium in Shanghai and achieved their biggest success by winning the 2004 China League Two division. In 2008 Wei Ping took ownership of the club until in January 28, 2011, Guizhou Zhicheng F.C. bought significant shares of the club for 5 million Yuan and thus began to merge the two clubs. The youth and reserve players were still allowed to play under the clubs name in the third tier of Chinese football until they were sold-off to Shanghai Dongya F.C. on December 27, 2012 that eventually saw the club officially dissolved.
The club was founded in 2003 as Shanghai Jiucheng (The 9) by Zhu Jun, the CEO of The9 Limited and would start in the amateur league of the fourth tier where they finished fourth. The following season would see the club merge with professional Chinese Yi league club Shanghai Tianna, Shanghai Jiucheng would keep their name and the new club would breeze through the third tier without losing a single game while winning the play-offs of the Chinese Yi league and promotion to the Chinese Jia League at the end of the season. The club's first season in the Chinese Jia League would see them finish ninth position within the league. Throughout the season the club's owner wanted to unify the team by renaming the team Shanghai United, however the team's lack of immediate success saw Zhu Jun abandon these plans so he could take over top tier Chinese side Shanghai Zobon instead.
In 2005 Zhu Jun and The9 Limited purchased Shanghai Zobon, a top tier Chinese Super League team and renamed the club Shanghai Liancheng Zobon (aka Shanghai United) and tried to merge the two clubs, however except for five players such as star midfielders Qi Hong and Jiang Kun, the rest of the players at the old Jiucheng club could not join the new Shanghai Liancheng Zobon, due to transfer rules in Chinese football. The remaining players would go on to form the basis of another new club, which was bought by the Euro-China Group (Simplified Chinese: 中欧集团) who renamed the team as Shanghai Qunying also known as the Shanghai Stars and would make sure that the club would remain within the second tier. When a company called Kangbo sponsored the team from 2005 to 2006 it was then known as Shanghai Kangbo in China. A company called Qidouxing (Simplified Chinese: 七斗星商旅酒店; Top Star) would become the club's sponsor and change the team's name into Shanghai Qidouxing. In the club's desperate attempts to remain within the league they would hire a string of managers including former player Shen Si, Peng Weiguo and Cao Xiandong to keep them within the league until the start of the 2008 league season, the club moved to the 30,000 seater Wuxi Sports Center, in Wuxi, a city in the nearby Jiangsu Province and the club was renamed as Wuxi Zobon. The club would also bring in experienced manager Ma Liangxing, however the move to a new city was not successful either on the field or off it and after only one year within Wuxi the club returned to Shanghai again in the 2009 league season. The club would bring in Shen Si again and be renamed as Pudong Zobon as well as moving into the 16,000 seater Pudong Yuanshen Sports Centre
...
Wikipedia