Guangzhou Information

Guangzhou Football Club compete in the Chinese Super League and are from the district of Guangzhou in Guangdong.

They play their home fixtures at the Tianhe Stadium, which has a maximum capacity of 58,500. Construction of the stadium began in 1984 before it opened in 1987 for the National Games of China. Guangzhou have called the stadium home since 2011.

The team wear a red home strip, while away from home they sometimes wear a yellow and black kit.

Guangzhou are managed by Zheng Zhi, who has been in the role since 2021. He was a key player for Guangzhou throughout their most successful period and now combines his role as a player with his managerial duties. He has made over 300 appearances for the club since his first appearance in 2010. 

The team have had slight variations to their name throughout their history following various changes of ownership and naming rights, and they have been in their current guise since 2021. With eight league titles, they are the most successful club in Chinese league history.

Guangzhou History

Guangzhou were formed in June 1954 and turned fully professional in January 1993, becoming the first club to be jointly owned by the government and an enterprise.

After a series of mid-table finishes in the second division, they were promoted to the Chinese Super League in 2007.

In 2009, they were demoted to the second tier after becoming involved in a match-fixing scandal. The Evergrande Real Estate Group purchased the club shortly afterwards and invested heavily in the team. They won promotion the following season and won their first title in the top tier of Chinese football in 2011.

This marked the start of a very successful period for Guangzhou. They clinched seven consecutive Chinese Super League titles between 2011 and 2017, and once more in 2019. Since winning promotion, they have never finished outside the top three among the Chinese Super League teams.  

It wasn’t only domestically where they have been successful. In 2013, they became the first professional Chinese team to win the Asian Champions League and repeated the feat two years later.