Full name | Yanbian Football Club 延边富德足球俱乐部 |
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Nickname(s) | Baekdu Tiger |
Short name | YFC |
Founded | 1955 1994 (Professional) |
as Jilin FC
Ground | Yanji Nationwide Fitness Centre Stadium, Yanji City |
Capacity | 30,000 |
Chairman | Gong Zhijie |
Manager | Park Tae-ha |
League | Chinese Super League |
2016 | Chinese Super League, 9th |
Website | Club home page |
Yanbian FC (simplified Chinese: 延边富德; traditional Chinese: 延邊富德; pinyin: Yánbiān Fùdé) is a professional Chinese football club that currently participates in the Chinese Super League division under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is based in Yanji, Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin province where their home stadium is the Yanji Nationwide Fitness Centre Stadium that has a seating capacity of 30,000. Their current major investors are the Yanbian Sports Bureau and life insurance company Funde Holdings Group.
The club's predecessor was originally called Jilin FC and they achieved one top tier domestic league title before 1994, when the club was reorganised to become a completely professional football unit. At the end of the 2000 league campaign the club was relegated from the top tier of Chinese football, however the club faced financial difficulties and sold the first team as well as the franchise to Zhejiang Lücheng. After the sale, the club assembled the reserve team and joined the third tier before they eventually gained promotion to the second tier in 2004.
In 1955 the local Jilin government sports body would form Jilin football club to take part in the recently expanded Chinese football league and built a team composed mostly of Koreans, taken from the large local Korean population. After predominantly establishing themselves as a top tier side the club achieved their first piece of silverware when they went on to win the 1965 league title. The Chinese Cultural Revolution unfortunately saw football in China halted and Jilin were unable to immediately defend their title until football returned in the 1973 league season where they finished seventh. The following seasons would see the club struggle within the league and spend several short spells within the second tier until at the end of the 1988 league season saw the Chinese Football Association restructure the league, which not only saw the club relegated but to the third tier.