Shanghai Greenland Shenhua F.C.


Shanghai Greenland Shenhua Football Club, is a Chinese professional football club that participates in the Chinese Super League under licence from the Chinese Football Association. The term shen hua literally translates as "the Flower of Shanghai" in English – shen is one of the alternative names of Shanghai and hua means flower in Chinese. The team is based in Kangqiao, Shanghai and their home stadium is the Hongkou Football Stadium, which has a seating capacity of 33,060. Their majority shareholder is Chinese developer Greenland Group who took over the operation of the club when they bought the 28.5% share from previous majority shareholder Zhu Jun in 2014.
The club's predecessor was called Shanghai F.C. and they predominantly played in the top tier, where they won several domestic league and cup titles. On 10 December 1993 the club was reorganised to become a completely professional football club so they could play in the 1994 Chinese Jia-A League season making them one of the founding members of the first fully professional top tier league in China. Since then, they have won one league title and three Chinese FA Cups.
According to Forbes, Shenhua are the 6th most valuable football team in China, with a team value of $106 million, and an estimated revenue of $29 million in 2015. The name Shenhua

History

Early club

Shanghai Shenhua's predecessor was originally called East China, a team name used as far back as 1910 for the football in the multi-sport event Chinese National Games. The local Shanghai government sports body decided to use this name for their new club founded on 1 November 1951 to take part in China's first fully nationalized national football league tournament where they finished second in the league that year. The football league gradually expanded and the team were allowed to name themselves after their own province of Shanghai in 1957. Soon afterwards by 1961, Shanghai started to establish themselves as a major football team within China when they won their first league title. This was then quickly followed by their second league title in 1962, however in 1966 because of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, football in China was halted and Shanghai were unable to play. When football returned in China, Shanghai were able to return to the top tier, however they were unable to regain any of the dominance that they had previously shown and were even relegated in 1980. Though they were able to be quickly promoted in the following season, they spent many years without actually winning any titles until Wang Houjun led them to win the Chinese FA Cup in 1991, which was their first trophy in 29 years.

Professionalism

Throughout the 1990s, the Chinese Football Association were demanding more professionalism from their football teams and while many were semi-professional, Shanghai would be one of the first when they gathered sponsorship from Yu Zhifei and the local company named Shenhua on 10 December 1993, founding Shanghai Shenhua.
This then saw Shanghai hire their first professional manager in Xu Genbao, who was the previous China national team manager in 1994. The move would quickly see Shanghai win the second professional football league title by the end of the 1995 league season.
When Xu left, Shanghai attempted to bring in several foreign coaches to add more experience to the team, however few achieved any success despite being close on several occasions, except for Muricy Ramalho's brief spell when the club won the 1998 Chinese FA Cup.
By the end of 2001, the Shenhua group ended their sponsorship of the club and were replaced with SVA and the Shanghai Media & Entertainment Group. The club changed its name to Shanghai Shenhua SVA SMEG Football Club. The team however remained unique as it still retains "Shenhua" in its name, whereas many other teams drop the name of their former sponsors completely.
On the pitch, the club would take over Shanghai Cable 02, a youth football team set up by Xu Genbao while also bringing in a new manager in Wu Jingui, who built a new squad predominantly using many from the Shanghai Cable squad and despite struggling in his debut season, he was able to win the league title in 2003. Critics would dispute the legitimacy of the title win after it was discovered in 2011 that the referee Lu Jun was bribed by the head of the CFA's referee arrangements, Zhang Jianqiang, to be biased towards Shenhua in a vital match against Shanghai International in a game that Shenhua won 4–1. Lu Jun and Zhang Jianqiang were both officially charged with match-fixing, while Shenhua's general manager Lou Shifang was discovered to be the person who orchestrated the bribes. Initially despite this indiscretion, the club was spared any disciplinary action. The reason provided by the CFA at the time for the leniency was that they would be punishing the individuals who put the game in disrepute and not the club; because Lou Shifang was Shenhua's offending participant and had left the club several years before the allegations were confirmed, it would have been harsh to punish the club retrospectively. On 18 February 2013 The CFA would decide to change its mind on Shenhua and retrospectively decided to punish the club by revoking its 2003 league title, fining the club with 1 million Yuan and giving a 6-point deduction at the beginning of the 2013 Chinese Super League season after it was discovered that they also fixed another game against Shaanxi Guoli en route to winning the 2003 league title.

Zhu Jun era

In 2007, the owner of inner-city rival of Shanghai United, Zhu Jun and his company The9 Limited bought a majority share of Shanghai Shenhua and began to merge Shanghai United into Shanghai Shenhua. His first act was to replace the previously successful existing head coach Wu Jingui with Shanghai United's Osvaldo Giménez. The appointment was to prove highly disruptive and Wu Jingui was quickly brought back as the head coach after only a few months, but was sacked on 9 September 2008. Jia Xiuquan took over his position on the same day. This was followed by the club adding to their backroom staff when on 1 January 2009 Shenhua made Chinese football history by becoming the first Chinese team to hire a foreign CEO and a technical director when on 1 January 2009, the club hired former manager Osvaldo Gimenez as their chief executive officer. One day later, former PSV Eindhoven technical director Stan Valckx joined Shenhua in the same position.
, Giovanni Moreno and Nicolas Anelka against Guangzhou Evergrande in July 2012. After a disappointing 2011 season in the Chinese Super League, Zhu Jun decided to bring in a marquee player, so on 12 December 2011 it was confirmed that Chelsea striker Nicolas Anelka would be arriving in Shanghai in January 2012, while six days later it was announced that his compatriot Jean Tigana would be the head coach from the 2012 season. Tigana was fired after a string of poor results and was replaced by former Argentina national team coach Sergio Batista to lead the team. After a successful season playing for Chelsea and winning the 2011–12 UEFA Champions League, Ivorian striker Didier Drogba signed a two-and-a-half-year deal with Shenhua. This was soon followed by the signing of Colombian international footballer Giovanni Moreno from Argentinian club Racing Club. These signings were intended to boost the club's title challenge and see Zhu Jun's investment within the club reach 150 million Yuan, which he believed gave him a controlling stake of 70 per cent as promised by the other shareholders. When the other shareholders decided not to agree to this arrangement, Zhu Jun decided to pull his funding of the club, which resulted in the team finishing in a disappointing ninth place and both Anelka and Drogba leaving the club. The relationship between Zhu Jun and the other shareholders became even more fractious at the beginning of the 2013 league season when the Chinese FA issued the club with a six-point deduction for match-fixing ten years prior and a fine of one million Yuan. This would lead to a shareholder dispute between the other shareholders SVA, Shanghai Media Group, Shanghai Electric Group and Huangpu SASAC on who should pay for this fine, which saw a gap in the club finances that saw Rolando Schiavi, Patricio Toranzo and Giovanni Moreno refuse to play the 31 March 2013 league game against Liaoning Whowin because of unpaid wages.

Greenland

The Zhu Jun era ended on 31 January 2014 when the club was purchased by Greenland Holding Group Company Limited. On 6 February 2014, Greenland Holding Group Company Limited announced that the club's official name would be changed to "Shanghai Greenland FC, Shanghai Greenland Shenhua team" and it was hoped that by retaining Shenhua within the official team name it would appease the fans by reflecting on the club's heritage. This did not work. Subsequent badge alterations which eliminated Shenhua from the teams logo drew significant criticism from many of the club's supporters, who publicly voiced their dissatisfaction on 9 March 2014 during the league game against Shanghai Shenxin as they saw removing Shenhua from the club's name as a stain on the team's heritage and history. On 18 July 2014 the club bowed to pressure from their supporters when they officially released a new team badge, which brought Shenhua back into the team logo and subsequently changed the club's name to "Shanghai Greenland Shenhua Football Club".
On 3 February 2015, three days after the Australian national football team won the AFC Asian Cup, Tim Cahill announced he had been signed by the Shenhua, moving from the New York Red Bulls Despite signing a one year contract extension in November 2015, Tim Cahill announced on his Instagram on 16 February 2016 that his contract had been terminated by incoming coach, Gregorio Manzano. No reason was given for his termination beyond saying that he was "not part of the new coach Manzano's plans for the 2016 season..."
Shanghai Shenhua won the 2019 Chinese FA Cup beating Shandong Luneng 3–0 at a packed Hongkou Stadium on 6 Dec 2019, making it a 3–1 aggregate victory for the Blues. It is the fifth time Shenhua have lifted the trophy, and the second time in three years, after their 2017 Chinese FA Cup victory over city rival Shanghai SIPG.

Rivalries

Shenhua's fiercest and oldest rivalry is against Beijing Guoan and is often referred to as the China Derby. The rivalry with Beijing is viewed as a manifestation of the rivalry that exists between the two most important cities in the country, as one is the center of government while the other is the financial centre of modern commerce within China. Each club had an extensive history including successful periods. However, they rarely competed directly for trophies until the 1997 league season. With Shenhua having won the 1995 league title and Beijing having won the 1996 Chinese FA Cup both teams looked as if they had the pedigree to win trophies that season and on 20 July 1997 in a vital league game, Beijing thrashed Shenhua 9–1 at the Workers Stadium in Beijing. It would be Beijing's largest victory and Shenhua's greatest defeat ever recorded. Soon after that event both teams would meet again in the 1997 FA Cup final, which saw Beijing win the cup.
When professionalism was established in 1994 within the Chinese leagues it opened the door for more than one team within each city. This eventually paved the way for the first ever Chinese top-flight city derby, which took place in 2002 when Shanghai Shenhua lost 2–0 to Shanghai Zhongyuan in front of a sold out Hongkou Football Stadium. Known as the Shanghai derby it would be the start of an intense but short rivalry between the two clubs, which reached its peak on the final day of the 2003 league season with both teams within reach of winning the league title. Shenhua won their game while Inter surprisingly lost theirs to relegation fighting club Tianjin Kangshifu. This saw critics dispute the title win and it was eventually discovered that both teams had players and officials match-fix games throughout the campaign. Shenhua would retrospectively lose their title while the Inter owners decided it was financially unviable to remain in Shanghai and relocated their team to Xi'an, which effectively ended the rivalry.
With Inter Shanghai leaving the city Shenhua experienced another one of these Shanghai derbies when Shanghai United were promoted in the 2006 league season. The rivalry between the two teams never reached the same intensity as what was experienced against Inter because United had only recently relocated to the city and were building their fan base. Any development of a rivalry was ultimately cut short when Zhu Jun took over both teams and merged them together with Shenhua keeping their name. In 2012 Shanghai Shenxin moved to the city revitalizing the derby, however it was the promotion of Shanghai SIPG in 2013 that caught to fans imagination because they were formed by Xu Genbao who had previously managed Shenhua. The club's geographical location has also opened them up to rivalries with neighbouring club's Hangzhou Greentown and Jiangsu Suning where they contest in a fixture called the Yangtze Delta Derby.

Players

First team squad

Reserve squad

Updated 1 March 2019

Unregistered players

Out on loan

Coaching staff

Managerial history

Managers who have coached the club and team since Shanghai Shenhua became a professional club back in 1993.
Shenhua FC
Shenhua SVA SMEG
Shenhua Liansheng
Greenland Shenhua
All-time honours list including semi-professional Shanghai period.

First team

;Domestic titles
;International titles
All-time League Rankings
Key


Updated 17 April 2018
SeasonCompetitionRoundOppositionScore
1996–97Asian Club ChampionshipFirst round Instant-Dict FC7–1, 1–2
1996–97Asian Club ChampionshipSecond round Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma0–0, 1–0
1998Far East Club ChampionshipGroup B Rotor Volgograd3–4
1998Far East Club ChampionshipGroup B Pusan Daewoo Royals0–1
1998Far East Club ChampionshipThird place match Júbilo Iwata0–2
1999–2000Asian Cup Winners' CupSecond round Shimizu S-Pulse0–0, 2–0
2002–03AFC Champions LeagueQualifying Round 2 Petrokimia Putra1–3, 5–1
2002–03AFC Champions LeagueQualifying Round 3 Geylang United FC3–0, 2–1
2002–03AFC Champions LeagueGroup A Daejeon Citizen1–2
2002–03AFC Champions LeagueGroup A Kashima Antlers4–3
2002–03AFC Champions LeagueGroup A BEC Tero Sasana1–2
2004A3 Champions CupTable Shanghai International1–1
2004A3 Champions CupTable Yokohama F. Marinos0–2
2004A3 Champions CupTable Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma1–1
2004AFC Champions LeagueGroup E BEC Tero1–4, 1–0
2004AFC Champions LeagueGroup E Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors0–1, 1–0
2004AFC Champions LeagueGroup E Jubilo Iwata1–2, 3–2
2006AFC Champions LeagueGroup G Đồng Tâm Long An3–1, 4–2
2006AFC Champions LeagueQuarter-finals Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors1–0, 2–4
2007AFC Champions LeagueGroup E Sydney FC1–2, 0–0
2007AFC Champions LeagueGroup E Persik Kediri0–1, 6–0
2007AFC Champions LeagueGroup E Urawa Red Diamonds0–1, 0–0
2007A3 Champions CupTable Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma3–0
2007A3 Champions CupTable Shandong Luneng Taishan1–2
2007A3 Champions CupTable Urawa Red Diamonds3–1
2009AFC Champions LeagueGroup G Singapore Armed Forces FC4–1, 1–1
2009AFC Champions LeagueGroup G Kashima Antlers0–2, 1–1
2009AFC Champions LeagueGroup G Suwon Bluewings2–1, 1–2
2011AFC Champions LeagueGroup H Kashima Antlers0–0, 0–2
2011AFC Champions LeagueGroup H Suwon Samsung Bluewings0–4, 0–3
2011AFC Champions LeagueGroup H Sydney FC1–1, 2–3
2017AFC Champions LeaguePlay-off round Brisbane Roar FC0–2
2018AFC Champions LeagueGroup H Kashima Antlers2–2, 1–1
2018AFC Champions LeagueGroup H Suwon Samsung Bluewings1–1, 0–2
2018AFC Champions LeagueGroup H Sydney FC0–0, 2–2

On neutral venue Shanghai Shenhua score is counted first.
;Key