Guangzhou Football Club, formerly known as Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao Football Club, is a Chinese professional football club based in Guangzhou, Guangdong that competes in China League One, the second tier of Chinese football. They play their home games at the Tianhe Stadium with a seating capacity of 54,856. The club's majority shareholders are the Evergrande Real Estate Group (56.71%) and the e-commerce company Alibaba Group (37.81%), while the rest of the shares are traded in the Chinese OTC system. The club was founded in 1954, and won several second tier titles before turning professional in 1993. Their results improved, leading to a runners-up spot in China's top tier. Unable to improve upon these results, the club went through a period of stagnation and decline before they experienced a brief revival, when they won the 2007 second division. In 2009, the club was embroiled in a match-fixing scandal and was subsequently relegated. In 2010, the Evergrande Real Estate Group decided to purchase the club and pumped significant funds into the team. They immediately won promotion and gained their first top tier title in the 2011 season. The club is the only Chinese football club to win the AFC Champions League twice, in 2013 and 2015. The club is also the first Chinese club to participate in the FIFA Club World Cup, making its first appearance in 2013. Between 2011 and 2017, Guangzhou won seven consecutive Chinese Super League titles, before being relegated in 2022 due to financial problems. According to Forbes report from 2016, the team was valued at US$282 million, the most out of all Chinese football teams, with a reported operating loss of over US$200 million in 2015. History Early history In June 1954, the local Guangzhou sports body founded Guangzhou Football Team to take part in the newly formed Chinese national football league. They entered the club in the 1955 league season and named Luo Dizhi as their first manager. He guided them to an eighth spot finish in their debut campaign. The league had grown to incorporate a second tier and their debut season performance final standing relegated them to the second division. Guangzhou won the division championship, however the Chinese Football Association decided to restructure the league at the beginning of the 1957 season and Guangzhou were denied promotion. Despite this, Luo Rongman managed the team to win the 1958 second division title; however, the club