Chinese Super League 2004 - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Overview

Chinese Super League

The Chinese Football Association Super League , commonly known as Chinese Super League or CSL, currently known as the Pirelli Chinese Football Association Super League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest tier of professional association football in China, operating under the auspices of the...

(CSL) season was greeted with great enthusiasm by the media and the FA, with the decision to create a new top tier league in China made in order to freshen up Chinese football

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

. The previous ten seasons of the old Chinese first division had been successful and had improved the quality of play in China

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

, however, the Chinese FA

Football Association of the People's Republic of China

The Football Association of the People's Republic of China , or commonly known as the Chinese Football Association , is the governing body of football in the People's Republic of China...

felt that a change was needed to give Chinese Football a further boost.

The decision to create the Chinese Super League was made before the 2003 Chinese season and of the 15 First Division teams competing in the 2003 season, it was decided that 3 would be relegated

Promotion and relegation

In many sports leagues around the world, promotion and relegation is a process that takes place at the end of each season. Through it, teams are transferred between divisions based on their performance that season...

with no promotion at all from the second tier league. The remaining 12 teams would compete in the inaugural Super League season.

It was planned that one team would be relegated with two teams to be promoted into the CSL at the end of the season but the relegation was cancelled halfway through and so for the second season the Super League had 14 teams.

Controversy

There were many controversial events during the season including the discovery that some players were betting against their own teams and losing games deliberately. Some referees were also suspected of fixing matches by awarding dubious penalty kicks and handing out cards freely. The most notorious incidents happened during two matches, one game involving Beijing Hyundai and the other Dalian Shide. In their respective matches, the players were unhappy about the referee's decisions and they protested by abandoning the match halfway. The CFA took both incidents seriously and handed out punishments by docking points off the two guilty teams.

Upsets

The season produced one of the biggest upset in Chinese football history. Shenzhen Jianlibao, coached by Zhu Guanghu

Zhu Guanghu

Zhu Guanghu is a Chinese football coach currently under contract with Shaanxi Chanba, and was previously the head coach of the China national football team to 22 August 2007.-Managerial career:...

, was facing financial problems and owed its players several months of salary. However, motivated by their coach, they still managed to finish Champions and even more remarkably, their defence only conceded 13 goals in 22 matches, the least in the league.

Another team causing an upset at the wrong end of the table was Shanghai Shenhua

Shanghai Shenhua

Shanghai Shenhua is a professional Chinese football club currently playing in Chinese Super League. The club is currently owned by Zhu Jun , Shanghai SVA Group, SMEG and Huangpu Investment Ltd. . The current head coach is Dražen Besek...

who had been Champions in the previous season and during the 2004 season had played in the prestigious AFC Champions League

AFC Champions League

The AFC Champions League is the premier Asian club football competition hosted annually by Asian Football Confederation . The tournament is contested among the top thirty-two clubs from the top 10 Asian leagues, two of which must qualify through the playoffs...

. However, they played poorly in the 2004 season and finished 3rd from bottom, only 1 point above bottom placed team, Chongqing Lifan

Chongqing Lifan

Chongqing Lifan, are a professional Chinese football club who currently plays in the Chinese League One division. They play their home games at the 58,680 seater Chongqing Olympic Sports Center in Chongqing and are owned by the Chongqing based Lifan Group, which manufactures motorcycles, cars and...

. If there had been relegation in the season, Shanghai would have found themselves battling against the drop.

Final league table

Final League Table for Chinese Super League 2004 Season

EWLINE

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
1	Shenzhen Jianlibao	22	11	9	2	30	13	42
2	Shandong Luneng Taishan	22	10	6	6	44	29	36
3	Inter Shanghai	22	8	8	6	39	31	32
4	Liaoning Zhongyu	22	10	2	10	39	40	32
5	Dalian Shide	22	10	6	6	33	26	30*
6	Tianjin Teda	22	7	8	7	28	29	29
7	Beijing Hyundai	22	8	7	7	35	33	28#
8	Shenyang Ginde	22	7	5	10	23	29	26
9	Sichuan Guancheng	22	4	11	7	29	37	23
10	Shanghai Shenhua	22	4	10	8	28	37	22
11	Qingdao Zhongneng	22	4	9	9	21	28	21
12	Chongqing Lifan	22	4	9	9	14	31	21

P = Games Played; W = Games Won; D = Games Drawn; L = Games Lost; F = Goals For; A = Goals Against; Pts = Points

* Deduct 6 points for abandoning a match in protest of a referee's call

# Deduct 3 points for abandoning a match in protest of a referee's call
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Clubs

Team	Average Attendance
Shandong Luneng Taishan	23,636
Chongqing Lifan Chongqing Lifan Chongqing Lifan, are a professional Chinese football club who currently plays in the Chinese League One division. They play their home games at the 58,680 seater Chongqing Olympic Sports Center in Chongqing and are owned by the Chongqing based Lifan Group, which manufactures motorcycles, cars and...	15,727
Shanghai Shenhua Shanghai Shenhua Shanghai Shenhua is a professional Chinese football club currently playing in Chinese Super League. The club is currently owned by Zhu Jun , Shanghai SVA Group, SMEG and Huangpu Investment Ltd. . The current head coach is Dražen Besek...	13,636
Tianjin Teda	13,182
Dalian Shide	11,273
Shenzhen Jianlibao	10,364
Beijing Guo'an	10,864
Inter Shanghai	8,455
Liaoning FC	7,727
Sichuan Guancheng Sichuan Guancheng Sichuan Guancheng was a Chinese Football Association Jia A League and Chinese Super League Club.Formed as Sichuan Quanxing in 8 November 1993, the football club was the football flagship of western China until Vanguard Huandao surfaced. In 2002, Sichuan Quanxing was sold to Dahe Group and was...	5,545
Shenyang Ginde Shenyang Ginde Guangzhou R&F is a professional football club based in Guangzhou, Guangdong who play in the China League One. The club was originally founded in 1986, in Shenyang and was once named Shenyang Ginde FC where they played in the 55,000-seater Shenyang Wuilihe Stadium , until they moved to Changsha in...	5,000
Qingdao Jonoon	4,645

Overview

Controversy

Upsets

Final league table

Clubs

See also