Hunan Billows Football Club () was 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.
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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
Hunan declined in the mid-2010s and were relegated back to League Two in 2016.
On January 6, 2025, the club announced its exit from the Chinese Football Professional League and was disbanded as a result of failing to gain access for the new season.
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. 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.
Players Current squad
Coaching staff
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.
YearDivPtsPos.FA CupSuper CupAFCAtt./GStadium 2007 3 14 5 4 5 15 16 −1 16 82007年中国足球协会乙级联赛决赛阶段比赛名次 fa.org.cn 2013-04-30 Retrieved 2016-03-04 NH DNQ DNQ Hunan Provincial People's Stadium 2008 3 16 10 1 5 23 14 19 28 62008年中国足球协会乙级联赛决赛阶段比赛名次 fa.org.cn 2013-04-30 Retrieved 2016-03-04 NH DNQ DNQ Hunan Provincial People's Stadium 2009 3 17 6 9 2 30 17 13 15 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 28 R2 DNQ DNQ Yiyang Olympic Sports Park Stadium 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) Champions (1): 2009
References
External links