Guangdong Sunray Cave F.C.


Guangdong Sunray Cave Football Club was a Chinese professional football club based in Guangzhou, Guangdong which last played in the China League One division.
The club was originally formed on February 5, 2007 and was once owned by Guangdong Sports Bureau and Sunray Cave Group. In November 2014, a group of local companies from Shaanxi Province collectively acquired the full ownership of the club and subsequently renamed it to 'Shaanxi Wuzhou F.C.', following the club's relocation the Shaanxi Province Stadium in Xi'an. However, the club failed to settle the wages of the players for 2014 season and was forbidden to play in the Chinese football league system by Chinese Football Association.

History

The Sunray Cave Group who had previously owned Guangzhou FC and the short-lived Hong Kong football club Sunray Cave founded Guangdong Sunray Cave Football Club on February 5, 2007 with the Guangdong Sports Bureau to take part in the third tier of Chinese football with a team predominantly built from the Guangdong youth team. In the club's debut season Cao Yang was brought in as their manager while the team played in the 8,000 seater Nanhai District Stadium in Foshan, Guangdong. Playing in an orange top, black shorts and orange socks for their home kits and an all white outfit for the away kits the team finished bottom within their group at the end at the end of the 2007 league season. The following 2008 league campaign saw the team move into the 36,686 seater Century Lotus Stadium in Foshan where they matured into genuine division championship contenders and came runners-up within the league, winning promotion to the second tier.
The club's debut season in the second division saw them move into the 12,000 capacity Huangpu Sports Center in Huangpu District, Guangzhou and they ended the campaign in a respectable fifth. The following season saw the owners wanting to move into the 15,000 capacity Guangdong Provincial People's Stadium, however it was going through renovation and the team had to use the Dongguan Stadium, Huangpu Sports Center and University of Technology Stadium before they finally moved in. With the team settled in results significantly improved within the 2011 campaign with the club looking like genuine promotion contenders until on September 24, 2011 they lost a league against Shenyang Dongjin F.C. 3–2 and the club were unable to recover for the final run in for promotion. After the club's failed promotion attempt Dragan Kokotović was brought in to provide more experience, however he left on March 27, 2012 after only several games and Cao was brought back as a caretaker manager. On July 29, 2012 José Ricardo Rambo came in as permanent manager while Cao became General manager. José time as manager was not a success and Guangdong became embroiled in a relegation battle, which saw the chairman Lin Qin bring back Cao once again on August 30, 2012 as a caretaker manager and relegate José as his assistant for the rest of the 2012 league campaign.
On 14 December 2014, a group of local companies from Shaanxi Province collectively acquired the full ownership of the club and subsequently renamed it to Shaanxi Wuzhou F.C. However, the club failed to register for the 2015 league season due to wage arrears. On 31 January 2015, the club was forbidden to play in the Chinese football league system by Chinese Football Association.

Name changes

Honours

All-time League Rankings
YearDivPtsPos.FA CupSuper CupAFCAtt./GStadium
20073122191121−1077NHDNQ –Nanhai District Stadium
200831711423818+2031RUNHDNQ –Century Lotus Stadium
2009224105937370355NHDNQ –Huangpu Sports Center
201022457123439−52211NHDNQ –Guangdong Provincial People's Stadium
201122613764229+13463R3DNQ –Guangdong Provincial People's Stadium
2012230108124146−53810R3DNQ –1,104Guangdong Provincial People's Stadium / Guangdong Olympic Stadium
201323017675129+22573R4DNQ –2,935Guangdong Provincial People's Stadium / Century Lotus Stadium
2014230612123647−113013R3DNQ –1,383Huangpu Sports Center

Key


Names in bold indicate players who had international cap when played for Guangdong Sunray Cave F.C.
;Bosnia and Herzegovina
;China PR
;Costa Rica
;Hong Kong
;Mali
;Uruguay
;Brazil