China Division 1 | 08/17 11:30 | 19 |
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W | 2-3 | |
China FA Cup | 08/06 07:30 | 3 |
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L | 1-2 | |
China Division 1 | 07/26 09:00 | 16 |
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D | 1-1 | |
China FA Cup | 07/23 07:30 | 4 |
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W | 4-3 | |
China Division 1 | 07/19 08:00 | 15 |
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W | 0-3 | |
China FA Cup | 07/16 07:30 | 9 |
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W | 3-2 | |
China Division 1 | 06/14 11:30 | 14 |
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W | 2-1 | |
China Division 1 | 06/07 08:00 | 13 |
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W | 1-2 | |
China Division 1 | 06/01 08:00 | 12 |
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L | 0-3 | |
China Division 1 | 05/24 07:00 | 11 |
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D | 2-2 | |
China Division 1 | 05/17 07:30 | 10 |
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W | 3-1 | |
China Division 1 | 05/10 07:00 | 9 |
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D | 0-0 | |
China Division 1 | 04/26 07:00 | 7 |
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L | 1-0 | |
China Division 1 | 04/19 07:30 | 6 |
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L | 0-1 | |
China Division 1 | 04/13 07:00 | 5 |
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L | 3-0 | |
China Division 1 | 04/05 07:30 | 4 |
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W | 3-0 | |
China Division 1 | 03/16 07:30 | 1 |
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D | 1-1 |
Qingdao Hainiu Football Club (Chinese: 青岛海牛足球俱乐部; pinyin: Qīngdǎo Hǎiniú Zúqiú Jùlèbù; lit. 'Qingdao Sea Bull F.C.') is a Chinese professional football club based in Qingdao, Shandong, that competes in the Chinese Super League, the top tier of Chinese football. Qingdao Hainiu plays its home matches at the Qingdao Youth Football Stadium, located within Chengyang District. Their current owners are the privately owned cable manufacturers Qingdao Jonoon Group.
The club was founded as Shandong Economic and Trade Commission Football Club in 1990 and started at the bottom of the Chinese football league pyramid in the third tier. On December 31, 1993, they became the first professional club in Qingdao and changed its name to Qingdao Manatee. They went on to establish themselves as a top-tier club and won their first major trophy in 2002 by winning the Chinese FA Cup on November 16, 2002, when they beat Liaoning Bird. In the mid-2010s the club started to decline and fell down two leagues, being relegated twice in 4 seasons.
Qingdao Jonoon Football Club started out as Shandong Economic and Trade Commission F.C. in 1990 by some retired footballers at the corporation affiliated with Shandong economic and trade commission associated with some workers at Qingdao Municipal Sanatorium. After playing in the Chinese Yi League for three seasons, the club finished as Second Division Champions and won promotion to the Chinese Jia-B League in 1992 – the club's first league title. As required by Chinese Football Association, on 31 December 1993, the club set up a professional system and became the first professional football club in Qingdao. Subsequently, the club was renamed to Qingdao Manatee F.C., the Chinese name for manatee, "海牛 (hainiu, literally 'sea bull')", also being the nickname for the foghorn in Tuandao Lighthouse due to the sound it emits.
Qingdao Manatee finished as the Chinese Jia-B League Champions and won promotion to the Chinese Jia-A League in 1994. In the following season, the club was invited to compete the Tainland Queen's Cup and achieved the third place with 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss – the club's first international honour. However, in domestic league the club was relegated to the Division 1B after losing an epic battle against Sichuan Quanxing 2–3. In 1996, the club appointed Wu Hongyue as manager, who led the team to a second-place league finish and regained promotion to the Division 1A. Soon after that season, the state-run tobacco producer – Qingdao Etsong Group started to invest the club, which changed its name to Qingdao Etsong Hainiu F.C. the following year. From 1997 season, the club became a regular member of the top division and was never relegated since then. On November 16, 2002, after beating Liaoning Bird 2–0 in Etsong Sports Center, the club won its first major trophy: the 2002 Chinese FA Cup.
After eight-year management by Etsong Group, the club was transferred to a privately owned cable manufacturer – Qingdao Jonoon Group and dropped the long term icon "Hainiu" from its name in December 2004. The club's new owner slashed down the budget greatly, sold up all notable players and assigned the former Jinan taishan's coach Yin Tiesheng as manager, who is famous for his defending style. In the following three seasons, Yin brought Jonoon to stay firmly in the middle position of the league. In 2008, after Yin's assignment as assistant coach of China Olympic team, the club promoted the assistant coach Guo Kanfeng as head coach and retained eighth place in that season. After six-round terrible management in the following season, Guo was sacked by the club and former notable Serbian coach Slobodan Santrač took over as manager. Though finished at thirteenth place, the team played a beautiful attacking soccer style and even the attacking combination was duplicated by the National Team head coach Gao Hongbo. Soon after 2009 season, the club surprisingly sacked Santrač and reassigned Guo as actual head coach, with Dragan Jovanovič assigned as nominal head coach due to Gu's lack of qualification. In 2010, the club endured a horrible season and lost the last match against Hangzhou Greentown 0–1, but surprisingly survived from relegation in the fourteenth place.
In the 2013 league season the team's manager Chang Woe-Ryong was sacked from the club despite the team sitting in tenth. The club would experience relegation at the end of the season and the club's owners publicly declared that one of their own players in Gabriel Melkam was match fixing, which resulted in their relegation. Gabriel Melkam would claim that the accusations of match-fixing were a ploy by the owners not to pay his wages and he took his case to FIFA. While this was going on further claims of mismanagement would arise with the transfer of the club's captain Liu Jian move to Guangzhou Evergrande when it was discovered that the club had forged an extension in his contract. In the 2014 league season the club were found guilty for breaking the Chinese FA's rules and were deducted 7 points.
In 2016 Qingdao Jonoon finished second-to-last in the League One and were relegated to the third level of the Chinese league system. Qingdao Huanghai, another team in the League One in the same city, started to get more attention. Qingdao had no more foreign players by 2019. In the 2019 season, there were deducted six points for a rule violation.