Wuhan Zall F.C.


Wuhan Zall Football Club is a professional Chinese football club that currently participates in the Chinese Super League under licence from the Chinese Football Association. The team is based in Wuhan, Hubei and their home stadium is the Dongxihu Sports Centre that has a seating capacity of 30,000. Their current majority shareholder is the investment company Wuhan Zall Development Holding Co. Ltd.
The club was founded in 2009 after the withdrawal and then dissolution of its predecessor Wuhan Guanggu from the league after the club had a dispute with the Chinese Football Association over their on-field behaviour. The Hubei Province soccer association decided to help form a new team with players mainly from the former Wuhan Guanggu and Hubei youth teams. They entered at the start of the 2009 league campaign at the bottom of the professional Chinese football league pyramid in the third tier. The team won promotion to the 2013 Chinese Super League after coming runners-up in the 2012 China League One division and spent only one season in the top flight before being relegated back down. In 2018, the team won the League One again and earned their second season in the top flight.

History

2009-2011: Hubei Greenery

Hubei Greenery was founded in February, 2009 after its predecessor Wuhan Guanggu withdrew from the top tier because of its controversial punishment in October 2008 after the club had a dispute with the Chinese Football Association over the club's on-field behaviour against Beijing Guoan in a September 27, 2008 league game. Due to their withdrawal they were unable to register and participate in any professional Chinese tournaments, however the Hubei Province soccer association decided that due to the lack of representation of any Hubei teams within the Chinese soccer league system they would help create a new team to represent Hubei and use the Wuhan U-19 team as well as the Hubei youth team as the foundation for the squad. This saw the establishment of a new soccer club on the 26 February 2009 when the Hubei Greenery officially registered itself within the Chinese Soccer association and start at the bottom of the professional football system in the third tier. The club would show their unusual strength in depth when they would breeze through the regional section of the league campaign and enter into the play-off finals where they lost their only game of the season Hunan Billows F.C. in a penalty shoot out. Despite the defeat the club would win promotion to the second tier and to strengthen their team they bought back the contracts of several Wuhan Guanggu players who were not permanently sold off.

2011-2018: Wuhan Zall

With the club in the second tier they would go through a period of joint investment from several parties until December 14, 2011 saw the Zall Group take ownership of the club and rename them Wuhan Zall Football Club as well as changing the team's colours back to orange, which was the club's predecessor's main colours. Initially the new owners saw the team struggle throughout the 2012 league season and decided to sack the existing manager Jose Carlos de Oliveira and replace him with Zheng Xiong on a caretaker basis. As the season went on the results considerably improved under Zheng Xiong who was given a full-time contract before guiding Wuhan Zall to second within the league and promotion to the Chinese Super League. The club's start in the 2013 league season was not a success and when the team went six games without a win, Zheng resigned. The former Shandong Luneng Head coach who had won the Chinese Super League, Ljubiša Tumbaković was brought in to manage the team, however despite his experience in the league he was unable to help the club avoid relegation and he was sacked before the season was finished.
In 2015 the football club was sold to a private company Wuhan Zall Development Holding Co. Ltd. under the ownership of their chairman Yan Zhi and his relatives, for RMB 20,630,000.

2019-Present: Super League

After several seasons within the second tier, the club brought in Li Tie as the Head Coach, a manager who had previously guided Hebei China Fortune F.C. to the top tier. In his debut season Li Tie was able to guide Wuhan to the victory of the division championship and promotion back into the Chinese Super League at the end of the 2018 league season.

Name history

First team

As of 24 July 2020

Reserve squad

As of 1 March 2019

Unregistered players

Out on loan

Coaching staff

Managerial history

All-time League Rankings
YearTierCupAFCAtt./GStadium
2009313850162+14242NHDNQXinhua Road Sports Center
201022410773024+6375NHDNQXinhua Road Sports Center
20112268992628−2337R1DNQXinhua Road Sports Center
201223016684029+11542R2DNQ6,701Xinhua Road Sports Center
201313037202458−361616R3DNQ14,403Wuhan Sports Center Stadium
201423018394631+15573R2DNQ8,457Xinhua Road Sports Center
2015230812103130+13610R2DNQ5,300Xinhua Road Sports Center
2016230127113133−2436R2DNQ4,853Xinhua Road Sports Center
201723013894740+7475R2DNQ13,525Wuhan Sports Center Stadium
201823018936025+35631R4DNQ6,884Zhongnan University of Economics and Law Stadium
20191301281041410446R4DNQ20,484Dongxihu Sports Center
20201000000000-DNQ-Dongxihu Sports Center

Key