The 2005 Chinese Super League season was the second season of
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
's top-tier
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...
competition. With no relegation the previous season, the league expanded from 12 to 14 clubs with the promotion of
Shanghai Zobon and
Wuhan Huanghelou
Wuhan Optics Valley Football Club () is a defunct football club that was located in the city of Wuhan, Hubei province, China. The club's home stadium was Xinhua Road Sports Center, while the important matches were played at the more modern stad ...
. The season was scheduled to start on 5 March 2005, but was postponed until April due to a sponsorship problem and finished on 5 November with
Dalian Shide, seven-time champions in the old first division, clinching their eighth title. Defending champions
Shenzhen Jianlibao
Shenzhen Football Club () is a Chinese professional football club that competes in the Chinese Super League. The team is based in Shenzhen, Guangdong and their home stadium is the Shenzhen Universiade Sports Centre that has a seating capacity of ...
finished third from bottom, the second consecutive year in which the defending champions has done so.
The FA had announced at the start of the season that no teams would be relegated for this season and they kept to this decision.
Promotion and relegation
Teams promoted from 2004 China League One
*
Wuhan Huanghelou
Wuhan Optics Valley Football Club () is a defunct football club that was located in the city of Wuhan, Hubei province, China. The club's home stadium was Xinhua Road Sports Center, while the important matches were played at the more modern stad ...
*
Shanghai Zobon
Teams relegated after end of
2004 Chinese Super League
*None
The season
The two-year-old league provided a more positive side of football than the previous season, with much fewer drug-abusing, match-fixing and other scandals on and off the pitch. However, the season was criticised for being unexciting with some stating that the only reason that particular clubs did well was because of foreign talent.
Most teams had not invested enough into their squads for the season to compete for the top positions in the CSL. As the decision to cancel relegation had been announced before the start of the season, unlike the previous season where it was decided halfway through. Teams with no chance of winning the league were thus reluctant to spend money in the transfer market.
Nevertheless, there was still strong competition at the top of the table with six teams fighting for the top two
AFC Champions League
The AFC Champions League (abbreviated as ACL) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competition ...
spots.
Dalian Shide remained at the top for almost the whole length of the season but there was a constant rotation of second place.
At the lower half of the table,
Chongqing Lifan
Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic () is a defunct Chinese football club. The team was based in Chongqing.
The club was founded in 1995 as Wuhan Qianwei before making their debut in the newly developed fully professional Chinese football league syst ...
finished at the bottom of the table for two years running while
Shenyang Ginde
Guangzhou City Football Club (广州城) is a Chinese professional football club that competes in the Chinese Super League under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is based in Guangzhou, Guangdong, and their home venu ...
deteriorated to second from bottom.
Early surprises
Among the contenders for the second spot,
Wuhan Huanghelou
Wuhan Optics Valley Football Club () is a defunct football club that was located in the city of Wuhan, Hubei province, China. The club's home stadium was Xinhua Road Sports Center, while the important matches were played at the more modern stad ...
was no doubt the surprise package. The team, promoted to the CSL the previous season, was little known to their opponents; but they started superbly, embarking on a seven match winning streak at one point, which put them hot on the heels of Dalian Shide. However, like many inexperienced sides, their composure failed in the second half of the season but they still finished a remarkable fifth.
Late dash
In the second half of the season, the battle for second was mainly between
Shanghai Shenhua
Shanghai Shenhua F.C. () is a Chinese professional football club that participates in the Chinese Super League under license from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The term ''shen hua'' literally translates as "the Flower of Shanghai" in ...
and
Tianjin Teda
Tianjin Jinmen Tiger Football Club is a professional Chinese football club that currently participates in the Chinese Super League under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is based in Tianjin, and their home stadium is t ...
. The gap between the two clubs was tiny and neither could afford slip-ups, although
Shandong Luneng Taishan and
Beijing Hyundai, who were also within striking distance, were eyeing their opponents' performances closely.
Shanghai Shenhua had a late surge of form to secure second with Shandong Luneng Taishan finished third to miss the final Champions League spot by just one point while Tianjin Teda was happy enough with a fourth place.
Dalian Shide won their eighth top-tier title with a 12 points cushion although they and Shanghai Shenhua had lost the same number of games because they had managed to win 6 games more.
League table
Top scorers
Attendances
League
*Total attendance: 1,871,700
[http://www.nanfangdaily.com.cn/osouthnews/dgtt/ttjd/200511270268.asp ]
*Average attendance: 10,284
Clubs
See also
*
Chinese Super League
The Chinese Football Association Super League, commonly known as Chinese Super League or CSL, currently known as the China Ping An Chinese Football Association Super League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest tier of professional football in ...
*
Football in China
Football in China includes the practice of American football, arena football, association football, paper football and other "football"-termed sports in the territory of People's Republic of China that does not include Hong Kong and Macau.
Ameri ...
*
Chinese Football Association
The Chinese Football Association (CFA) is the governing body for association football, beach soccer and futsal in People's Republic of China (Mainland China). The CFA organizes the men's and women's national teams and administers the country' ...
*
Chinese Football Association Jia League
The Chinese Football Association China League (), also known as China League One or Chinese Jia League (中甲联赛), is the second level of professional football in China. Above League One is the Chinese Super League.
Prior to the formation of ...
*
Chinese Football Association Yi League
The Chinese Football Association Division Two League (Simplified Chinese: 中国足球协会乙级联赛), or China League Two, is the third tier league of the People's Republic of China. The league is under the auspices of the Chinese Football As ...
*
Chinese FA Cup
The Chinese FA Cup (, abbreviated as CFA Cup) is the national knockout cup competition in China organized by the Chinese Football Association. Its current holders are Shandong Taishan, having beaten Shanghai Port in 2021 for a record seventh title ...
References
External links
Results and tableon
RSSSF
The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) is an international organization dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around the ...
2005 Chinese Super Leagueon Sina
{{2005 in Asian football (AFC)
Chinese Super League seasons
1
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...