Guangdong South China Tiger Football Club (; Hakka Chinese:Kwong3 Tung1 Fa2 nam2 fu3 Zuk7 kiu2 Ki1 ngok8 pu3) or simply Guangdong South China Tiger (; Hakka Chinese:Kwong3 tung1 fa2 nam2 fu3) was a professional Chinese football club that last participated in China League One. The team was based in Meixian District, Meizhou, Guangdong and their home stadium was the Meixian Tsang Hin-chi Stadium. Their majority shareholder was engineering, and construction company Shenzhen Techand Ecological Environment Co., Ltd.
History The club was founded on 3 July 2003 as Dongguan Nancheng F.C. (Simplified Chinese: 东莞南城足球俱乐部; Traditional Chinese: 東莞南城足球俱樂部; Hakka Chinese:Tung1 Ngan2 Nam2 Shin2 Zuk7 kiu2 Ki1 ngok8 pu3) by the Dongguan City Sports Bureau who created them as a Phoenix club to Guangdong Hongyuan F.C. who were sold-off and moved cities in 2001. The club would then gain entry to participate within the 2003–04 Hong Kong First Division League as a foreign team within the league. The Dongguan City Sports Bureau gained sponsorship and investment from real estate developers South City Real Estate Development Company, Guangdong Hongyuan Real Estate Development Company, Guangdong Enterprises Group Co., Ltd., China Everbright, Huang City Development Co., Ltd., Dongguan City Royal Garden residential construction Limited, Carnation New Garden Construction Co., Ltd., The new Bank of Development and Construction Co., Ltd., Dongguan Kuari Footwear Holdings Limited and Dongguan CITIC Group before participating within the league where they finished sixth. The club only spent one season within the Hong Kong league, which was mired by their on-field disciplinary issues against Buler Rangers on March 7, 2004, that saw nine players from Dongguan Nancheng and six from Buler Rangers suspended for their behaviour. After the season ended the club deciding to switch to the Chinese league system in the 2005 league season where they started within the third tier. In the campaign they topped the group stages and reached the semi-final within the play-off's where they lost 3–2 to Nancheng Bayi Hengyuan in extra time, missing out on promotion. After that disappointment the club pulled out of the league and disbanded their first team, however they still maintained their youth system after the season ended.
The club rejoined the China League Two division in 2011 and made significant changes to the club, such as changing their home ground to Dongguan Nancheng Sports Park Stadium, altering their uniforms from red to yellow tops with blue shorts, building a new squad from their existing youth team, changes that saw the club reach the semi-finals of the division play-offs. The club moved to the city of Meizhou and changed their name as Meixian Hakka F.C. on 12 December 2012 making them the first professional football club in Meizhou, which the city like to proclaim as the "Homeland of football" in China due to it being where the Europeans introduced Association football to the country as well as paying homage to the former Chinese footballer and coach Lee Wai Tong who grew up there.足球之乡诞生首家职业俱乐部 2013年冲甲是目标 sports.sohu.com 2012-12-24 Retrieved 2016-04-08 This was followed by a move into Meixian Tsang Hin-chi Stadium and a new Head coach in Hirokazu Sakuma. In March 2015 engineering, and construction company Shenzhen Techand Ecological Environment Co., Ltd. took over the club. Once again the club changed its name to Meizhou Meixian Hakka F.C. in January 2016.关于梅县客家足球俱乐部主要股权转让并更名的公示 fa.org.cn 2016-01-13 Retrieved 2016-04-08 On 30 December 2016, they changed their name to Meizhou Meixian Techand F.C. so as not to be confused with local rivals Meizhou Hakka F.C.关于梅州市梅县区客家足球俱乐部有限责任公司更名的公告 fa.org.cn 2016-12-30 Retrieved 2016-12-30 A new badge, a change in home colours to red over the previous yellow tops and blue shorts would complete their transformation of the club. In the 2017 league season under the management of Li Haiqiang the club came runners-up to Heilongjiang Lava Spring F.C. in the division and gained promotion to the second tier for the first time, which saw the players given a bonus of £2.86 million.
The club deleted the owner's information from their name and changed to Guangdong South China Tiger F.C. in answer to Chinese FA's new regulation in January 2019. The club announced its dissolution in February 2020.
Name history 2003–2012 Dongguan Nancheng F.C. 东莞南城/東莞南城 2013–2015 Meixian Hakka F.C. 梅县客家/梅縣客家 2016 Meizhou Meixian Hakka F.C. 梅州梅县客家/梅州梅縣客家 2017–2018 Meizhou Meixian Techand F.C. 梅州梅县铁汉/梅州梅縣鐵漢 2019–2020 Guangdong South China Tiger F.C. 广东华南虎/廣東華南虎
Managerial history
Li Hu (2011) Goran Paulic (2012) Hirokazu Sakuma (2013) Tomoo Tsukoshi (2014) Wang Hongwei (2015–2016) Li Haiqiang (2017) Juan Ignacio Martínez (2018) Fu Bo (2018–2020)
Results All-time league rankings
As of the end of 2019 season.
YearDivPtsPos.FA CupSuper CupAFCAtt./GStadium 2003/04 1 18 5 5 8 25 31 −8 20 6 R1 DNQ DNQ Dongguan Stadium 2005 3 19 11 4 4 30 14 16 29 32005年中国足球协会乙级联赛决赛阶段名次 fa.org.cn 2013-04-30 Retrieved 2016-04-08 DNE DNQ DNQ 2011 3 25 11 7 7 32 21 11 36 42011年中国足球协会乙级联赛决赛阶段名次 fa.org.cn 2013-04-30 Retrieved 2016-04-08 DNE DNQ DNQ Dongguan Nancheng Sports Park Stadium 2012 3 24 12 4 8 41 30 11 40 6 DNE DNQ DNQ 1,488 Dongguan Nancheng Sports Park, Meixian Tsang Hin-chi Stadium 2013 3 14 4 3 7 11 20 −9 15 72013年中国足球协会乙级联赛决赛阶段名次 fa.org.cn 2015-08-07 Retrieved 2016-04-08 R1 DNQ DNQ Meixian Tsang Hin-chi Stadium 2014 3 16 7 4 5 25 20 5 25 5 R2 DNQ DNQ 2015 3 16 7 6 3 15 9 6 24 52015年中国足球协会乙级联赛决赛阶段名次 fa.org.cn 2016-05-09 Retrieved 2016-05-16 R1 DNQ DNQ 2016 3 20 8 11 1 26 17 9 35 7 R2 DNQ DNQ 5,219 2017 3 27 15 4 8 39 27 12 49 RU R3 DNQ DNQ 3,863 2018 2 30 8 10 12 41 44 −3 34 14 R3 DNQ DNQ 6,550 2019 2 30 10 6 14 41 50 -9 36 11 R3 DNQ DNQ Dongguan Nancheng didn't compete in 2006–2010. At Hong Kong First Division League 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
See also Guangdong Winnerway F.C.
References
External links Official club website