Guangzhou Matsunichi F.C.


Guangzhou Matsunichi Football Club was a professional football club based in Guangzhou, Guangdong, PR China who last played in the 21,570 capacity Xihe Sports Centre in Shaoguan. The club was originally established as the youth team for Guangzhou F.C. whom were allowed to participate within the Chinese football league pyramid until the team was sold-off to Pan Sutong and his company Matsunichi Digital Holdings Limited to form Guangzhou Matsunichi F.C. on 28 February 1995. The club would soon gain promotion to the top tier of Chinese football where in total they spent three seasons before suffering relegation at the 1999 league season. When the club experienced another relegation campaign in 2000, Pan Sutong decided to pull his funding for the club, which officially became defunct on 26 November 2000.

History

The club was originally established in 1990 to be the youth team for Guangzhou F.C. who were allowed to participate within the Chinese football league pyramid. They were often referred to as Guangzhou B and in their first appearance within the Chinese leagues they entered the third tier in the 1992 season where they came third, which was enough to gain promotion for the 1994 campaign. After the 1993 league season was restructured the club were allowed to make their second appearance in the 1994 campaign, this time within the second tier where they went on to come third. With these impressive positions and with the dawn of professionalism, which allowed private investors to own football clubs the club decided to take advantage of this and separate from their parent club and sell the team to Pan Sutong and his company Matsunichi Digital Holdings Limited to form Guangzhou Matsunichi F.C. on 28 February 1995.
In the club's debut season under new ownership the team continued their upswing in results and came runners-up within the division at the end of the 1995 campaign and gained promotion to the top tier for the first time. A reunion with Guangzhou F.C. would also occur on 25 June and 1 July 1995 within the Chinese FA Cup that saw Guangzhou Matsunichi win 4–3 on aggregate. The team's constantly rising trajectory, however would come to an end in the 1996 league season after the club were unable to handle the top tier and experienced relegation at the end of the campaign. After that disappointment the club hired former Chinese national team coach Xu Genbao in the hopes that his experience could revive the club's fortunes and one of his first acts was to persuade the then current Chinese international footballer Gao Hongbo to take a step down in leagues and join the club. This move would be a huge success and the club gained promotion back into the top tier in their first attempt.
In the 1998 league season Xu Genbao left the club to manage the reigning league champions Dalian Wanda F.C., which saw the club bring in Brazilian coach Edson Tavares. The new coach would make sure that the club would remain within the league and actually guided the team to fourth, however after only one season with the club Tavares left the team. Gao Hongbo was promoted to coach, but his inexperience saw him leave during the season, which saw the club bring Liu Kang into the team but he was unable to stop the team slide down the table and experience relegation at the end of the 1999 campaign. On 22 December 2011 it would be discovered that the club's General manager knew that the referee for the club's vital final game of the season was bribed to help keep fellow struggling team Shenyang Sealion in the division and he took a bribe to keep silent. After the disappointing season the team were unable to recover and faced relegation again in the 2000 campaign, which saw Pan Sutong decide to pull his funding for the club. This saw the club financially unsustainable and it became officially defunct on 26 November 2000.

Managerial history

Managers who have coached the club and team since Guangzhou Matsunichi became a professional club back in 1995.
All-time League Rankings
YearDivPtsPos.FA CupSuper CupAFCAtt./GStadium
199522210843127+4382QFDNQDNQYuexiushan Stadium, Guangzhou
199612229111026−161512QFDNQDNQ11,727Tianhe Stadium, Guangzhou
19972229763322+11344QFDNQDNQXihe Sports Centre, Shaoguan
1998126106102333+10364R1DNQDNQ7,308Guangdong Provincial People's Stadium, Guangzhou
199912676132436−122713R1DNQDNQ12,308Guizhou Provincial Stadium, Guiyang
2000222210101535−201612R1DNQDNQXihe Sports Centre, Shaoguan

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