Henan F.C.

Henan Football Club, previously Henan Jianye, is a Chinese professional football club based in Zhengzhou, Henan, that competes in the Chinese Super League, the top tier of Chinese football. Henan plays their home matches at the Zhengzhou Hanghai Stadium, located within Guancheng Hui District. Their owners are the Jianye Residential Group (China) Co., Ltd., which is part of the Central China Real Estate Limited. Their name refers to Jianye, a former name of the ancient city of Jiankang. The club's predecessor was the Henan Provincial Team, which was founded in 1958, while the current professional football team was established on August 27, 1994. The club has never won the league title and the highest position they have ever achieved was when they came third in the 2009 Chinese Super League season. History The football club was originally known as Henan Provincial team and was founded in 1958 by the local government sports body to take part in the 1959 Chinese National Games before joining the gradually expanding Chinese football league system. The team often spent much of its time in the second tier, except for a short period during the late 1970s when the league was expanded to accommodate more teams. When the Chinese football league system grew to accommodate a third tier, Henan found themselves in it when they were relegated from the second tier in the 1981 league season. However, they were able to quickly return to the second tier when they came out as top of the table to win promotion in the 1982 league season. It wasn't long until they won promotion to the top tier once more in the 1985 league season, where they would remain until the 1988 league season when they were relegated at the end of the season. By the 1994 league season, the entire Chinese football league system had become professional and Henan would quickly follow when they became professional on August 27, 1994, by selling a 40% stake of the club to Jianye Residential Group (China) Co., Ltd. and renamed themselves Henan Construction. Henan's transition toward professionalism was difficult and they were once more relegated at the end of the 1994 league season to the third tier. Once again, they would have to win promotion from the third tier when they came runners-up in the table at the 1995 league season. For several seasons, they were a second tier club fighting against relegation until Henan Jianye Real Estate Development Co., Ltd.