Dalian Shide was a professional Chinese football club based in Dalian, Liaoning province, China who played in China's football league system between 1955 and 2012. Their home stadiums were the 55,843 capacity Dalian People's Stadium and then later in 1997 they moved to the 30,776 capacity Jinzhou Stadium. The club was initially founded in 1955 as Dalian Shipyards and made sporadic appearances within the Chinese national leagues until 1982 when the local Dalian government took ownership of the club and renamed it Dalian Football Club. The club won their first major silverware when they won the 1992 domestic cup title. In 1993, the club was reorganised to become a completely professional football team, renamed themselves Dalian Wanda FC and went on to win the first fully professional 1994 Chinese Jia-A League title. The tycoon Xu Ming and the Shide Group would go on to take over the club rename it Dalian Shide. Achieving a total of eight league titles from both the Jia A and the rebranded CSL Dalian were the most successful club in Chinese football, while in the Asian Football Confederation the club reached the 1997–98 Asian Club Championship and 2000–01 Asian Cup Winners' Cup finals. History The club was founded as Dalian Shipyards in 1955. After the 1982 season the local Dalian government took over its ownership and renamed it Dalian Football Club to represent the city. The club immediately became a major force within the second tier and eventually win promotion to the top level in 1984 when they won the division title. For the next several seasons Dalian were predominantly top tier regulars except for one season in 1989 when they were in the second tier, however they quickly won promotion and soon went on to win their first domestic cup in 1992. Soon afterwards the Chinese Football Association started to demand full professionalism and sponsorship from all the clubs in China. Dalian went on to be one of the first fully professionalised clubs in China on July 3, 1992. They gained sponsorship in 1993 from the China Hualu group and then the Dalian Wanda Group on March 8, 1994 who changed the club's name to Dalian Wanda FC. In the inaugural fully professional 1994 league season, the club brought in former Chinese national team manager Zhang Honggen to coach the team and under his leadership guide the club to their first ever league title.