Hunan Billows F.C.

Hunan Billows Football Club (Chinese: 湖南湘涛足球俱乐部; pinyin: Húnán Xiāngtāo Zúqiú Jùlèbù) is a Chinese professional football club based in Changsha, Hunan. Historically, Hunan Billows has played its home matches at various grounds across their home province, and last played at the Loudi Sports Center in Loudi, Hunan. Their majority shareholders were the Hunan Provincial Sports Bureau and high-tech industry company Hunan Corun New Energy Co. Ltd.

Hunan Billows
Húnán Xiāngtāo
湖南湘涛

Full name	Hunan Billows Football Club 湖南湘涛足球俱乐部
Founded	26 December 2006; 18 years ago (2006-12-26)
Ground	Loudi Sports Center, Loudi
Capacity	30,000
Chairman	Li Jingman
Manager	Jia Hong
2024	China League Two, 8th of 20 (expelled from league)
Home colours Away colours

The club was founded on December 26, 2006, and won the 2009 Chinese League Two title and promotion to the Chinese League One division, but was relegated back after the 2016 season.

History

Formation

To preserve the representation of Hunan province in the Chinese football league pyramid after the dissolution of Hunan Shoking, the local Hunan Provincial Sports Bureau decided that it would be best to invest in a new team for the area.^[1] On December 26, 2006, a new team was formed to participate in the 2007 league season called Hunan Billows F.C. with Xiong Ni returning as their chairman and Li Kejia returning as their manager.^[2] Now playing within the 6,000-seat Hunan Provincial People's Stadium. The team was completely rebuilt and played their first league game against Sichuan FC in a 1–0 defeat.^[3] Throughout the season the club's results improved and the team finished third in the Southern division. They made the play-offs but were knocked out in the second round.^[4] With a further investment of six million Yuan from the local Hunan government sports body, in the following season results the club gained another play-off position. Again they were knocked out in the second round.^[5] By the 2009 league season and with the continued investment of the local Hunan government sports body and of the management of Men Wenfeng, the club won the division title after they beat local rivals Hubei Luyin in the playoff final to win the division title.^[6] In the second tier again, they moved back into the Helong Stadium and hired Zhao Faqing as their new manager at the beginning of the 2010 league season. The season began well for the club and they looked like genuine promotion contenders. Conflicts between the Hunan and the Hubei Greenery fans during their May 14 game seemed to derail their promotion push. They finished the season in sixth.^[7] The next season they moved into the 20,000-seat Central South University Stadium and brought in Miloš Hrstić to manage them. Miloš Hrstić's leadership improved the team's ranking at the end of the 2011 league season slightly – they finished fourth. He left the club at the end of the season and was replaced by his assistant coach Zhang Xu.^[8] In preparation for the 2012 league season the club brought in several high-profile players such as Honduras internationals Emil Martínez and Erick Norales and Chinese international Dong Fangzhuo in their hopes to win promotion.^[9] The recruitment for not result in promotion that season, but it brought an increase in investment in from the Hunan Liuyang River Wine Winery Industry Co., Ltd., Zoomlion Company Limited, Central South Publishing & Media Group Co., Ltd., Kelme and the return of Hunan Corun New Energy co. ltd.^[10]

Hunan Billows FC football shirt in 2016

Hunan declined in the mid-2010s and were relegated back to League Two in 2016.

Grounds

The team have played in several stadiums throughout their history. When they were formed they predominantly used the 55,000-seat Helong Stadium in Changsha for their important matches. The more modest 6,000-seat Hunan Provincial People's Stadium which is also located in Changsha was used for their smaller games.^[11] With the club in financial difficulties the cost of renting the Helong Stadium led the team to move permanently into the Hunan Provincial People's Stadium. They started there when the club was reformed and they were playing in the third tier. When they won promotion back into the second tier, the Helong Stadium was an option for a brief period before 2011 when they have predominantly used the 20,000-seat Central South University Stadium in Changsha as their main stadium.^[12]

Players

Current squad

As of 5 March 2024

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 3 DF  CHN Liu Qing 4 FW  CHN Xu Jiang 5 DF  CHN Ou Li 6 DF  CHN Qin Zhenkang 7 MF  CHN Liu Peilin 8 MF  CHN Wang Yuxuan 9 FW  CHN He Yaqi 12 DF  CHN Zhang Chenlong 13 MF  CHN Wu Xiaotian 15 DF  CHN Miao Huaxu 41 DF  CHN Lu Jiatong 42 MF  CHN Tan Yu 43 MF  CHN Wang Kuifeng 44 DF  CHN Zhou Xuan 45 DF  CHN Song Yanbin

No. Pos. Nation Player 47 DF  CHN Peng Bo 48 FW  CHN Nie Xinlei 49 MF  CHN Wu Qinghua 50 DF  CHN Zhang Xiaoming 51 DF  CHN Yin Ruirui 52 FW  CHN Wang Bo 54 MF  CHN Sun Qi 55 DF  CHN Xia Shichao 56 DF  CHN Liu Guanjun 57 DF  CHN Li Zhihao 58 FW  CHN Huang Haotian 59 DF  CHN Wang Bin 60 MF  CHN Tan Youchuan 62 MF  CHN Zhang Hanwen 50 GK  CHN Yan Zhicheng — GK  CHN Dong Jianhong — GK  CHN Wang Zixuan — DF  CHN Zu Pengchao — DF  CHN Jiang Zhe — DF  CHN Liu Jing — DF  CHN Chen Fangzhou — DF  CHN Chen Ao (at Qingdao West Coast) — MF  CHN Xu Zhaoji — MF  CHN Qeyser Tursun — FW  CHN Wei Zhenghong

Coaching staff

Position	Staff
Head coach	Jia Hong
Assistant coach
Goalkeeping Coach
Fitness coach
Team Physician

Source: sina.com

Managerial history

• Li Kejia 26 December 2006 – 2008
• Men Wenfeng 2009
• Zhao Faqing 2009–19 December 2009
• Miloš Hrstić 19 December 2009 – 1 November 2011
• Zhang Xu 1 November 2011 – 11 December 2012
• Dražen Besek 11 December 2012 – 25 July 2013
• Huang Cheng (Caretaker) 25 July 2013 – 27 November 2014
• Aleksandar Stankov 27 November 2014 – 2 May 2015
• Zhang Xu (caretaker) 2 May 2015 – 6 August 2015
• Žikica Tasevski 6 August 2015 – 1 November 2015
• Tomaž Kavčič 30 November 2015 – 28 May 2016
• Huang Xiangdong (caretaker) 28 May 2016 – 31 December 2016
• Zhang Xu 1 January 2017 – 27 May 2017
• Vladimir Slišković 3 February 2017 – 26 August 2017
• Li Hongwu (caretaker) 27 May 2017 – 23 June 2017
• Patrick de Wilde 23 June 2017 – 5 December 2017
• Pei Encai 22 February 2018 – 7 July 2018
• Sun Wei 7 July 2018 – 25 February 2019
• Tang Jing 25 February 2019 – 2 June 2020
• Wang Chen 2 June 2020 – 31 December 2020
• Jia Hong 1 January 2021 –

Results

All-time league rankings

• As of the end of 2019 season.^[13][14]

Year	Div	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Pos.	FA Cup	Super Cup	AFC	Att./G	Stadium
2007	3	14	5	4	5	15	16	−1	16 1	8[15]	NH	DNQ	DNQ		Hunan Provincial People's Stadium
2008	3	16	10	1	5	23	14	19	28 1	6[16]	NH	DNQ	DNQ		Hunan Provincial People's Stadium
2009	3	17	6	9	2	30	17	13	15 1	W	NH	DNQ	DNQ		Hunan Provincial People's Stadium
2010	2	24	10	5	9	21	24	−3	35	6	NH	DNQ	DNQ		Hunan Provincial People's Stadium
2011	2	26	12	6	8	39	35	4	42	4	R1	DNQ	DNQ		Hunan Provincial People's Stadium CSUFT East-Garden Stadium
2012	2	30	10	8	12	33	37	−4	38	11	R3	DNQ	DNQ	6,970	CSUFT East-Garden Stadium Hunan Provincial People's Stadium Yiyang Olympic Sports Park Stadium
2013	2	30	7	9	14	27	40	−13	30	12	R3	DNQ	DNQ	4,668	Yiyang Olympic Sports Park Stadium Helong Stadium
2014	2	30	12	9	9	38	33	5	45	6	R3	DNQ	DNQ	5,169	CSUFT East-Garden Stadium Yiyang Olympic Sports Park Stadium
2015	2	30	8	5	17	32	48	−16	29	14	R2	DNQ	DNQ	4,795	Yiyang Olympic Sports Park Stadium Helong Stadium
2016	2	30	2	6	22	16	61	−54	12	16	R2	DNQ	DNQ	3,781	Yiyang Olympic Sports Park Stadium
2017	3	24	9	4	11	31	33	−2	31	16	R1	DNQ	DNQ	712	Yiyang Olympic Sports Park Stadium
2018	3	28	10	10	8	43	32	11	40	10	R3	DNQ	DNQ	398	Yiyang Olympic Sports Park Stadium
2019	3	30	5	5	20	17	59	−42	20 1	28	R2	DNQ	DNQ		Yiyang Olympic Sports Park Stadium

• ^1 In group stage.

Key

China top division   China second division   China third division W   Winners RU   Runners-up 3   Third place   Relegated

Pld = Played W = Games won D = Games drawn L = Games lost F = Goals for A = Goals against Pts = Points Pos = Final position

DNQ = Did not qualify DNE = Did not enter NH = Not Held  – = Does Not Exist R1 = Round 1 R2 = Round 2 R3 = Round 3 R4 = Round 4

F = Final SF = Semi-finals QF = Quarter-finals R16 = Round of 16 Group = Group stage GS2 = Second Group stage QR1 = First Qualifying Round QR2 = Second Qualifying Round QR3 = Third Qualifying Round

Honours

• China League Two (tier-III)^[6]
  • Champions (1): 2009