Changchun Yatai Football Club () is a Chinese professional football club based in Changchun, Jilin, that competes in . Changchun Yatai plays its home matches at the Changchun Stadium, located within Nanguan District. The club's founder and main investor is the private Chinese conglomerate Jilin Yatai Group.
The club was formed on 6 June 1996, before making their debut in the third tier of China's football league pyramid in the 1997 league season. In 2000, they bought a position into the second division after they merged with Huizhou PLA Saonon. In 2001, they finished as runners-up within their division. However, they were denied promotion after they were embroiled in a match-fixing scandal. The club would reform and re-apply for a CFA playing license before they eventually gained promotion to China's top flight at the end of the 2005 league campaign. In the 2007 Chinese Super League, they won the league title and participated in the 2008 AFC Champions League for the first time. They have since gone on to come in second at the 2009 Chinese Super League and also participated in the 2010 AFC Champions League.
History Changchun Yatai was founded on 6 June 1996, by local conglomerate Jilin Yatai Group in Changchun, Jilin, to take part in the league system that was fully professionalized recently, which allowed private enterprises to own their own clubs. The club would select a dragon kicking a ball as their crest while assembling the club's senior team. And to make sure they had a competitive youth system, they also brought in the best youth players from Shenyang before moving them into their recently created football training base at a cost of two million yuan, while the total cost of starting the whole enterprise would end up being 20 million yuan. For the next several seasons, the club achieved very little until they bought a position into the second tier when the club took over Huizhou PLA Saonon at the beginning of the 2000 league season for fifteen million yuan, while during the season the team maintained an unbeaten home record but still finished in a disappointing fifth at the end of the season. The following season, the club's manager, Yin Tiesheng, looked like he could improve upon last years results when he guided the club to a runners-up position and what looked like promotion to the top tier for the first time. However, it was soon discovered that the 6 October 2001, game that Changchun won 6–0 against Zhejiang Green Town was fixed. This saw the club denied promotion and had all offending participants banned for a year, while the club had three months to reform and re-apply for a CFA playing license. Despite this, Yin Tiesheng stayed on and promoted future Chinese internationals Du Zhenyu, Zhang Xiaofei, and Cao Tianbao from the club's youth team, which was assembled from Shenyang, into the senior team. These players in 2003 would go on to win the Jia B (second level) title, but the club was not promoted due to the creation of the Super League.
Yin Tiesheng would leave the club in 2004 to take the Chinese U20 head coach position and Chen Jingang was brought in as the new manager. Within his reign, Chen Jingang guided the club to a runner-up spot in the China League One division in 2005 and promotion to the Super League. In the club's debut season, they finished fourth. However, Chen Jingang was relieved of his duties after he lost it in the dressing room by threatening to dock player wagers if he was unsatisfied with their performances. In 2007, Gao Hongbo was brought in as the new manager and in his debut season, he won the Chinese Super League title with them. This would see Changchun allowed entry to the 2008 AFC Champions League for the first time, along with Beijing Guoan, and played their first game against Vietnamese football club Bình Dương on 12 March 2008, in a 2–1 victory While the club finished the group runners-up only, one team was allowed to go through the knock out stages and the club crashed out of the tournament. This, unfortunately, affected the club's league performance and Gao Hongbo was fired during the season.
In September 2008, Li Shubin was brought in to manage the club and to see out the remainder of the 2008 league season. However, under his leadership, results improved and the club went on to have an industrious following campaign that saw them come runners-up at the end of the 2009 Chinese Super League campaign. Despite achieving consistently good performances for the team, the club decided that they wanted Shen Xiangfu to manage the team for the following season and within one of his first games for the club in the 2010 AFC Champions League, on 9 March 2010, Changchun beat Indonesian side Persipura Jayapura 9–0, making the victory the largest ever within the AFC Champions League for a Chinese side. Shen Xiangfu was, however, unable to guide Changchun into the knockout stages despite there being two places up for grabs and his league performances were not impressive. Despite this, the club held on to him for another season where he fared little better and at the beginning of the 2012 Chinese Super League season, the club brought in Svetozar Šapurić as the club's new manager.
In the 2018 Chinese Super League, Changchun underperformed in the last third of the season, finishing 15th. The team was relegated to the China League One. The 2019 season saw Changchun come close to earning promotion immediately back into the top tier, with a ten-game unbeaten streak in the middle of the season. Ultimately, though, the club slipped towards the end of the season and finished the campaign in fifth place. However, Changchun won the 2020 China League One title and returned to the Chinese Super League after a two-year absence.
After a five-year spell in the Chinese Super League, Changchun Yatai were relegated to China League One in the 2025 season.
Players First-team squad
Reserves squad
Retired numbers
12 – Club Supporters (the 12th Man) retired in 2017.亚泰高层携将帅与球迷联欢 12号球衣将专属球迷 sohu.com 2017-10-31 Retrieved 2017-11-02
Out on loan
Coaching staff
Managerial history .
Tang Pengju (1997–98) Yin Tiesheng (1999–04) Qu Gang (interim) (2004 – 26 Apr 2004) Li Hui (26 Apr 2004 – 6 July 2004) Chen Jingang (18 July 2004 – 2006) Arie Schans (1 Jan 2005 – 31 Dec 2007) Team leader Gao Hongbo (1 Jan 2007 – 5 July 2008) Li Shubin (interim) (20 July 2008 – 31 Dec 2008) Ernst Middendorp (27 July 2008 – 31 Dec 2008) Li Shubin (interim) (Sept 2008 – 25 Dec 2008) Li Shubin (1 Jan 2009 – 31 Dec 2009) Shen Xiangfu (2010–11) Svetozar Šapurić (24 Nov 2011 – 28 Dec 2012) Li Shubin (28 Dec 2012 – 20 May 2013) Svetozar Šapurić (21 May 2013 – 21 April 2014) Gao Jinggang (interim) (21 April 2014 – 28 April 2014) Dragan Okuka (28 April 2014 – 12 Nov 2014) Gao Jinggang (19 Dec 2014 – 12 Jun 2015) Marijo Tot (12 Jun 2015 – 31 Dec 2015) Slaviša Stojanović (13 Jan 2016 –4 May 2016) Lee Jang-soo (6 May 2016 –4 May 2017) Chen Jingang (4 May 2017 –6 Jun 2019) Svetozar Šapurić (9 Jun 2019 – 2 Dec 2019) Samvel Babayan (2 Dec 2019 – 5 Oct 2020) Chen Yang (5 Oct 2020 – 17 April 2024) Xie Hui (17 April 2024 – 7 May 2025) Ricardo Soares (7 May 2025 –31 December 2025) Yan Feng (1 January 2026 –Present)
Honours
League Chinese Super League Champions: 2007 Runners-up: 2009 China League One/Jia-B League Champions: 2003, 2020 Runners-up: 2001, 2005
Results All-time League rankings
As of the end of the 2023 season.
YearDivPtsPos.FA CupSuper CupLeague CupAFCAtt./GStadium 1997 3 5 1 1 3 4 9 −5 3 61997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 2016-04-08 DNQ DNQ 1999 3 12 6 3 4 20 7 13 6 51999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 2016-04-08 DNQ DNQ 2000 2 22 7 10 5 28 22 6 31 5 QF DNQ Changchun Stadium 2001 2 22 12 6 4 39 15 24 42 RU QF DNQ 2002 2 22 8 4 10 30 35 −5 28 8 R1 DNQ 2003 2 26 15 8 3 51 15 36 53 W R2 DNQ 2004 2 32 13 12 7 53 34 19 51 5 R1 DNQ Development Area Stadium 2005 2 26 20 4 2 71 22 49 64 RU R1 DNQ Changchun Stadium 2006 1 28 13 7 8 41 26 15 46 4 R1 8,607 2007 1 28 16 7 5 48 25 23 55 W 16,429 2008 1 30 12 9 9 53 45 8 45 6 Group 5,797 2009 1 30 14 8 8 38 31 7 50 RU 12,179 Development Area Stadium 2010 1 30 10 8 12 40 41 −1 38 9 Group 10,067 2011 1 30 11 12 7 33 31 2 45 7 R3 13,835 2012 1 30 12 8 10 37 40 −3 44 6 QF DNQ 12,701 2013 1 30 8 8 14 29 41 −12 32 14 R4 DNQ 12,975 2014 1 30 8 8 14 33 40 −7 32 13 R3 DNQ 12,886 2015 1 30 8 11 11 39 47 −8 35 10 R3 DNQ 14,855 2016 1 30 10 5 15 30 44 −14 35 12 R3 DNQ 15,202 2017 1 30 12 8 10 46 41 5 44 7 R3 DNQ 16,477 2018 1 30 8 8 14 45 56 −11 32 15 R4 DNQ 18,819 Changchun Stadium 2019 2 30 15 8 7 52 42 10 53 5 R16 DNQ 13,785 2020 2 15 10 4 1 28 7 21 34 W QF DNQ 2021 1 22 11 6 5 31 20 11 39 4 R16 DNQ 2022 1 34 11 11 12 49 50 −1 44 13 R2 DNQ Changchun Stadium 2023 1 30 10 9 11 44 48 -4 39 9 R16 DNQ 15,872
Did not enter in the 1998 campaign. In group stages. Promotion to Jia-A league was cancelled due to match fixing. No promotion.
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 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
Continental results SeasonCompetitionRoundOppositionHomeAwayRank/Agg.2008AFC Champions LeagueGroup stage Bình Dương Adelaide United Pohang Steelers2010AFC Champions LeagueGroup stage Kashima Antlers Persipura Jayapura Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors
References
External links