2004 Chinese Super League

The 2004 Chinese Super League was the debut season of the establishment of the Chinese Football Association Super League (中国足球协会超级联赛 or 中超), also known as the Chinese Super League. Sponsored by Siemens Mobile, it is the eleventh season of professional association football league and the 43rd top-tier league season in China. The premier football league in China under the auspices of the Chinese Football Association, the season started on May 15 and ended December 4 where it was planned that no teams would be relegated at the end of the season.

Promotion and relegation

Teams promoted from 2003 Jia-B League

• None

Teams relegated after end of 2003 Jia-A League

• Chongqing Qiche (Merged with Yunnan Hongta)
• August 1st
• Shaanxi Guoli

Overview

The first Chinese Super League (CSL) season was greeted with great enthusiasm by the media and the FA, with the decision to create a new top tier league in China made in order to freshen up Chinese football. The previous ten seasons of the old Chinese first division had been successful and had improved the quality of play in China. However, the Chinese Football Association felt that a change was needed to give Chinese football a further boost.

The decision to create the Chinese Super League was made before the 2003 Chinese season and of the 15 First Division teams competing in the 2003 season, it was decided that three teams would be relegated with no promotion at all from the second tier league. The remaining 12 teams would compete in the inaugural Super League season, which saw Chongqing Qiche remain within the league despite being relegated after they merged with seventh place team Yunnan Hongta.

It was planned that one team would be relegated with two teams to be promoted into the CSL at the end of the season but the relegation was cancelled halfway through and so for the second season the Super League had 14 teams.

Controversy

There were many controversial events during the season including the discovery that some players were betting against their own teams and losing games deliberately. Some referees were also suspected of fixing matches by awarding dubious penalty kicks and handing out cards freely. The most notorious incidents happened during two matches, one game involving Beijing Hyundai and the other Dalian Shide. In their respective matches, the players were unhappy about the referee's decisions and they protested by abandoning the match halfway. The CFA took both incidents seriously and handed out punishments by docking points off the two guilty teams.

Upsets

The season produced one of the biggest upset in Chinese football history. Shenzhen Jianlibao, coached by Zhu Guanghu, was facing financial problems and owed its players several months of salary. However, they still managed to finish as champions and even more remarkably, their defence only conceded 13 goals in 22 matches, the least in the league.

Another team causing an upset at the wrong end of the table was Shanghai Shenhua who had been Champions in the previous season and during the 2004 season had played in the prestigious AFC Champions League. However, they played poorly in the 2004 season and finished 3rd from bottom, only 1 point above bottom placed team, Chongqing Qiche. If there had been relegation in the season, Shanghai would have found themselves battling against the drop.

Personnel

Team	Manager
Beijing Hyundai	Template:Flagicon Wei Kexing
Chongqing Qiche	Template:Flagicon Viorel Hizo
Dalian Shide	Template:Flagicon Hao Haidong (caretaker)
Inter Shanghai	Template:Flagicon Cheng Yaodong
Liaoning Zhongyu	Template:Flagicon Ma Lin
Qingdao Beilaite	Template:Flagicon Wang Weiman (caretaker)
Shandong Luneng	Template:Flagicon Ljubiša Tumbaković
Shanghai Shenhua	Template:Flagicon Valery Nepomnyashchy
Shenyang Ginde
Shenzhen Jianlibao	Template:Flagicon Zhu Guanghu
Sichuan Guangdong	Template:Flagicon Gao Huichen
Tianjin TEDA	Template:Flagicon Liu Chunming

Foreign players

The number of foreign players is restricted to three, but all teams can only use two foreign players on the field in each game. Players from Hong Kong, Macau and Chinese Taipei are deemed to be native players in CSL.

• Players name in bold indicates the player is registered during the mid-season transfer window.
• Players in italics were out of the squad or left the club within the season, after the pre-season transfer window, or in the mid-season transfer window, and at least had one appearance.

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Former players
Beijing Hyundai	Template:Flagicon Krisztián Kenesei	Template:Flagicon Dan Alexa	Template:Flagicon Branko Jelić
Chongqing Qiche	Template:Flagicon Ivan Bulat	Template:Flagicon Radu Niculescu	Template:Flagicon Victor Naicu	Template:Flagicon Constantin Schumacher Template:Flagicon Viorel Domocoș
Dalian Shide	Template:Flagicon Adilson	Template:Flagicon Zoran Janković	Template:Flagicon Ermin Šiljak	Template:Flagicon Dave de Jong
Inter Shanghai	Template:Flagicon Zé Alcino	Template:Flagicon Kwame Ayew	Template:Flagicon Kola Adams	Template:Flagicon Ivan Bulat Template:Flagicon Régis Dorn
Liaoning Zhongyu	Template:Flagicon Alen Avdić	Template:Flagicon Clément Lebe	Template:Flagicon Branko Savić
Qingdao Beilaite	Template:Flagicon André Gaspar	Template:Flagicon Josip Bulat	Template:Flagicon Oleksandr Holovko	Template:Flagicon Yssouf Koné Template:Flagicon Joaquim Ferraz Template:Flagicon Serhiy Konovalov Template:Flagicon Heberley Sosa
Shandong Luneng	Template:Flagicon Nicolas Ouédec	Template:Flagicon Darko Anić	Template:Flagicon Vladimir Matijašević
Shanghai Shenhua	Template:Flagicon Jörg Albertz	Template:Flagicon Saúl Martínez	Template:Flagicon Peter Vera
Shenyang Ginde	Template:Flagicon Sead Bučan	Template:Flagicon Prince Ikpe Ekong	Template:Flagicon Sam Ayorinde
Shenzhen Jianlibao	Template:Flagicon Auricélio Neres	Template:Flagicon Marek Zając	Template:Flagicon Djima Oyawolé	Template:Flagicon Zoltán Kovács
Sichuan Guancheng	Template:Flagicon Miodrag Pantelić	Template:Flagicon Lee Kyung-soo	Template:Flagicon Daniel Nannskog
Tianjin TEDA	Template:Flagicon Alyaksandr Khatskevich	Template:Flagicon Bogdan Mara	Template:Flagicon Ionel Gane	Template:Flagicon José Luis Díaz Template:Flagicon Ricardo Template:Flagicon Ahmet Dursun

Top scorers

Rank	Scorer	Club	Goals
1	Template:Flagicon Kwame Ayew	Inter Shanghai	17
2	Template:Flagicon Li Jinyu	Shandong Luneng	13
3	Template:Flagicon Branko Jelić	Beijing Hyundai	11
4	Template:Flagicon Li Xiaopeng	Shandong Luneng	10
5	Template:Flagicon Tao Wei	Beijing Hyundai	9
	Template:Flagicon Ermin Šiljak	Dalian Shide
	Template:Flagicon Daniel Nannskog	Sichuan Guancheng
8	Template:Flagicon Djima Oyawolé	Shenzhen Jianlibao	8
9	Template:Flagicon Zé Alcino	Inter Shanghai	7
	Template:Flagicon Guo Hui	Liaoning Zhongyu
	Template:Flagicon Yu Genwei	Tianjin TEDA

Attendances

League

• Total attendance: 1,430,600
• Average attendance: 10,838

Clubs

Football club	Average attendance
Shandong Luneng	23,636
Chongqing Qiche	15,727
Shanghai Shenhua	13,636
Tianjin TEDA	13,182
Dalian Shide	11,273
Shenzhen Jianlibao	10,364
Beijing Hyundai	10,864
Inter Shanghai	8,455
Liaoning Zhongyu	7,727
Sichuan Guancheng	5,545
Shenyang Ginde	5,000
Qingdao Beilaite	4,645

See also

• Chinese Super League
• Football in China
• Chinese Football Association
• Chinese Football Association Jia League
• Chinese Football Association Yi League
• Chinese FA Cup

External links

• Results and table on RSSSF
• League table at data.sports.sina.com.cn Template:In lang