Shandong Taishan Football Club () is a Chinese professional football club based in Jinan, Shandong, that competes in . Shandong Taishan plays its home matches at the Jinan Olympic Sports Center Stadium, located within Lixia District. Their current majority shareholder is Shandong Electric Power Group Corporation, the biggest supplier of electric energy in Shandong province and itself part of the State Grid Corporation of China. Shandong Taishan is one of the four clubs to have never been relegated from the Chinese top-flight since the Chinese Super League's foundation in 2004. The club name Taishan derives from Mount Tai.
The club's predecessor was called Shandong Provincial team which was founded on 10 April 1956, while the current professional football team was established on 2 December 1993. They were one of the founding members of the first fully professional top-tier football league in China. Since then, they have gone on to win their first league title in the 1999 league season. They have continued to win domestic silverware with the 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2021 league titles, making them one of the most successful football clubs in China.
According to Forbes, Shandong is the 5th most valuable football team in China, with a team value of $126 million, and an estimated revenue of $24 million in 2015. In that year, Beijing Guoan, Guangzhou Evergrande and Shandong Luneng Taishan were the only Chinese sports clubs with at least 5 million followers on Weibo.
History
Early club era The club was founded on 10 April 1956 as Shandong Provincial team by the local Shandong Province government, to participate in the recently established and expanding Chinese football league, where the team originally named themselves Shandong Provincial team. Shandong took part in the 1957 league season, where they started within the second tier and finished bottom within the group stages. The following season saw an improvement from the team, finishing third within their group, however participation within the league became sporadic as the management decided to concentrate the team's efforts on the multi-sport event Chinese National Games. Participating within the 1965 Chinese National Games, the club ultimately finished ninth within the tournament. The following season, any attempt to return to the league was halted for several seasons due to the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
When the league started back up again in 1973, Shandong were allowed to be included in the top tier and finished ninth at the end of the campaign. As the seasons progressed, they established themselves as regulars within the league, however the management still wished to compete within the Chinese National Games and entered a team in the 1979 tournament which they won, beating Beijing 3–1 in the final. The success of that tournament acted as a springboard for the team, and Shandong finish as runners-up of the 1981 and 1982 league campaigns. The momentum Shandong showed at the start of the decade quickly faded, and by the end of the decade they had experienced their first-ever relegation, finishing in the bottom positions for the 1989 league season. Unfortunately for Shandong, they were once again relegated the following season and sent down to the third tier.
The club's time within the third division did not last very long, and they immediately won the division title and promotion at the end of the 1991 league season. The following campaign saw the Chinese Football Association decide to make Chinese football fully professional, and this seemed to spur on the club, as they came third within the division and guaranteed promotion to the first fully professional top-tier league, the 1994 Chinese Jia-A League. On 2 December 1993, Shandong football club became fully professional, gathered sponsorship and changed their name to Shandong Taishan Football Club. On 29 January 1994, Jinan City, the city government sponsored and participated in the club's management, changing its name to Shandong Jinan Taishan Football Club to accommodate this.
Turning professional Shandong would be one of the founding teams to participate within the inaugural fully professional 1994 Chinese Jia-A League season; however, the owners quickly ran into financial problems with the improved player wages and added costs of running a professional club, which saw players often paid late. The lack of funds also saw the club unable to sign any foreign imports, making them one of the few teams in the league without any foreign players within their roster. To add to the club's problems, several veterans left at the end of the season. On 3 April 1995, the club rebranded to Jinan Taishan General. Under new manager Yin Tiesheng, such players as Li Xiaopeng, Liu Yue and Su Maozhen given chances. They defeated the newly-crowned Shanghai Greenland Shenhua in the 1995 Chinese FA Cup final. After the victory, Shandong General Tobacco (Group) Co., Ltd. became interested in the club and, on 2 March 1996, took control of the team, investing 6.5 million yuan into the club. With the continued investment from the Jinan City government as well, the club was on a sure financial footing, and with Su Maozhen becoming the league's top goal scorer and the team reaching another cup final again in 1996, things looked to have improved, despite a final day loss to Beijing Guoan 4–1.
First foreign head coach On 4 December 1997, the club held a consultation with the Shandong Electric Power Group Corporation and, on 5 January 1998, Shandong Electric Power Group Corporation became the majority shareholders of the club and changed the club's name to Shandong Luneng Football Club. While the Jinan City government still had significant shareholdings within the club, the new majority shareholders decided that the team needed a new direction and brought in the club's first ever foreign coach in Kim Jung-Nam at the beginning of the 1998 league season, after Yin Tiesheng wasn't able to improve upon the previous season's results. Kim came into Shandong with a reputation of having led South Korea into the 1986 FIFA World Cup, their first World Cup in over 32 years. He dramatically changed the team's style of play and emphasized attacking football, and new signing Deng Lejun from Beijing Guo'an thrived on this, scoring seven goals. Kim's style, however, didn't bring the team many wins, and he resigned later in the season, while Yin Tiesheng returned to manage the team away from relegation.
First league title On 25 December 1998, former Yugoslavia national team head coach Slobodan Santrač joined Shandong as their new manager for the start of the 1999 league season. With key foreign signings in Yugoslavian goalkeeper Saša Petrović, striker Luis Romero combining with now established Chinese international Su Maozhen along with the emergence of Li Xiaopeng, Shandong had the backbone of a team that surprised many to go on to the final day of the season and defeat Chongqing Longxin 5–0 to claim their first ever league title. Several days later, the club would achieve their first ever domestic cup double when they beat Dalian Wanda 4–3 on aggregate to clinch the 1999 Chinese FA Cup, which resulted in Santrač personally being awarded the Chinese 'Coach of the Year' award. The 1999 FA Cup victory would unfortunately be tainted by controversy when, on 18 February 2013, it was confirmed by the Chinese police that former Chinese football association Head of refereeing, Zhang Jianqiang was paid 400,000 Yuan by the club to select the referees for their fixtures in the tournament. Shandong would later be fined one million Yuan by the Chinese football association for this transgression.
For the start of the 2000 league season, Paraguayan striker Casiano Delvalle and midfielder Charles Wittl were brought in to replace the exiting Luis Romero. Unfortunately for Shandong, they got off to the worst possible start to the season by losing their first game of the new campaign to the newly promoted side Yunnan Hongta 1–0. The club continued to struggle with defending their title and by the 16 July clash with Qingdao Etsong Hainiu, the pressure had already seen Santrač refuse to speak to the media despite Shandong actually winning the game 4–2. With the title already gone from Shandong and Santrač appearing to have lost control of the team he was forced to resign on 13 September 2000, while youth team coach Đoko Koković temporarily took over the team for the remainder of the season.
Dong Gang In preparation for the 2001 season, speculations grew. Croatian Miroslav Blažević was rumoured to become the new head coach for the club's first team. After the end of the 2000 season, Shao Kenan was forced to step down as general manager and Dong Gang became his replacement on 2 November 2000. Dong's first decision was to hire Russian Boris Ignatiev. With Casiano Delvalle being the previous season's top goal scorer and the introduction of foreign veterans such as Gabriel Mendoza, José Herrera and Serhiy Nahornyak, expectations were high for Shandong. However, the team started the new season badly, losing 0–1 to newly promoted side Shaanxi National Power in their opening match. Shandong Luneng then experienced one of the most devastating defeats in their history in the continental 2000–01 Asian Club Championship in March 2001, where they lost 6–2 to Júbilo Iwata and then 6–0 to the Suwon Samsung Bluewings. These were the first of a series of Shandong's humiliating defeats on the international stage, affecting the team's morale. In the summer of 2001, Nii Lamptey and later Márcio Santos were signed in an effort to halt the losing streak. Lamptey was instrumental in helping Shandong regain confidence and they finished their remaining matches strongly with 9 wins and 1 draw, including 7 straight wins towards the end of the 2001 season.
Another Russian, Valeri Nepomniachi, who achieved great success at the 1990 FIFA World Cup with Cameroon, was appointed as Shandong's new head coach on 18 December 2001. Under his reign, the team's performance improved initially and finished 4th in the 2002 season, their second-best result since 1994. Nepomniachi was to stay for another year. However, Shandong struggled throughout the season and only finished 12th, barely avoiding relegation. Despite being named in a match-fixing scandal, Dong stayed as the club's general manager for another 2 years until November 2005, when he left his position to Kang Mengjun. Along the way, he made the decision to hire Ljubiša Tumbaković, who was to become Shandong's most successful manager.
On 7 January 2004, Serbian Ljubiša Tumbaković was brought in as head coach for the rebranded 2004 Chinese Super League and, with the signing of Chinese international striker Li Jinyu along with the emergence of Han Peng, the club were able to win the 2004 Chinese FA Cup by beating Sichuan First City in the final. With the continued investment coming from the signing of another Chinese international in Zheng Zhi, Shandong looked to provide a better showing in the club's second outing in the 2005 AFC Champions League, where they reached the quarter-finals before being humbled by eventual winners Al Ittihad of Saudi Arabia with an 8–3 aggregate. The capitulation against Al-Ittihad, which saw Tumbakovic and players Zheng Zhi as well as Predrag Pažin sent off for abusive and violent conduct, would ultimately affect the team's performance within the league, and see them lose the 2005 league title, eventually finishing in third pllace.