The Bayi or August First Football Team (), known fully as the People's Liberation Army Bayi Football Club (), was a football team under the sport branch of the

People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the military of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). It consists of four Military branch, services—People's Liberation Army Ground Force, Ground Force, People's ...

(PLA) that played in China's football league system between 1951 and 2003. They were predominantly based in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

. The name Bayi (八一), meaning August 1, is the founding date of the PLA. They started out as an amateur team who occasionally took part in multi-sport events until they took part in the 1951 inaugural Chinese national football league tournament. With their unprecedented monopoly of football talent taken from every army football team in the country they would establish themselves as one of the top teams within the league winning five national league titles in their history. When the Chinese football league became a fully professional unit in the 1994 league season the club were given special dispensation to remain as semi-professional as possible by having all their members remain active military members while abstaining from foreign players and sponsorship. The cost of professionalism would see the club take on offers from cities that included

Taiyuan Taiyuan; Mandarin pronunciation: (Jin Chinese, Taiyuan Jin: /tʰai˦˥ ye˩˩/) is the capital of Shanxi, China. Taiyuan is the political, economic, cultural and international exchange center of Shanxi Province. It is an industrial base foc ...

Xi'an Xi'an is the list of capitals in China, capital of the Chinese province of Shaanxi. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong plain, the city is the third-most populous city in Western China after Chongqing and Chengdu, as well as the most populou ...

Kunming Kunming is the capital and largest city of the province of Yunnan in China. The political, economic, communications and cultural centre of the province, Kunming is also the seat of the provincial government. During World War II, Kunming was a Ch ...

Shijiazhuang Shijiazhuang; Mandarin: ; formerly known as Shimen and romanized as Shihkiachwang is the capital and most populous city of China's Hebei Province. A prefecture-level city southwest of Beijing, it administers eight districts, three county-le ...

Xinxiang Xinxiang ( zh, s= , t= , p=Xīnxiāng ; Postal romanization, postal: Sinsiang) is a prefecture-level city in northern Henan provinces of China, province, China. It borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to its southwest, Kaifeng to its sou ...

Liuzhou Liuzhou (; , Standard Mandarin: , Liuzhou Yue dialect: International Phonetic Alphabet, iəu53 ʦəu44 is a prefecture-level city in north-central Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China. The prefecture's population was 4 ...

Xiangtan Xiangtan ( zh, s=湘潭) is a prefecture-level city in east-central Hunan province, south-central China. The hometowns of several founding leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, including Chairman Mao Zedong, President Liu Shaoqi, and Marshal P ...

and

Hunan Hunan is an inland Provinces of China, province in Central China. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the Administrative divisions of China, province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to the east, Gu ...

for financial reason. They also took sponsorship and changed their name to Bayi Zhengbang and Bayi Xiangtan, however these measures could not stop the club from relegation in 2003. With a loss in prize money and stricter regulations from the

Chinese Football Association The Chinese Football Association (), abbreviated as CFA (), is the governing body for association football, beach soccer and futsal in the People's Republic of China (Mainland China). The CFA organizes the men's and women's national teams an ...

the People's Liberation Army disbanded the club.

History

The name Bayi (八一), meaning August 1, is the founding date of the

(in 1927). They started out as an amateur team who occasionally took part in the multi-sport event

National Games of China The National Games of the People's Republic of China is the highest-level comprehensive multi-sport event of China. It is hosted by the General Administration of Sport of China. The games is held every four years, usually in the summer or a ...

. This would change when China's first fully nationalized national football league tournament started and the club was essentially re-established as a semi-professional unit to compete within the competition. While the club had a strict policy of only having active servicemen within their set-up they hired a professional coach in Dai Linjing as their Head coach in 1952 despite him being a civilian, however his professionalism saw the club go on to win the 1953 league title for the first time. The club would incorporate existing army football teams such as the Southwest Military Region, Nanjing Army Unit and Shenyang Army Unit football team to give themselves an unprecedented monopoly of football talent throughout the country while based in Beijing. This saw them continue to be title contenders despite Dai Linjing leaving to take on the Chinese national team and the club employing from within when former player Chen Fulai took over the team in 1963. Unfortunately because of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, football in China was halted and Bayi were unable to play any competitive fixtures until 1973. When the club joined the league again in 1974 they would actually improve and go on to win the league title that season. Sustained dominance would see them go on to win the 1977, 1981 and 1986 league titles while also competing in the

1987 Asian Club Championship The 1987 Asian Club Championship was the 7th edition of the annual Asian club football competition hosted by Asian Football Confederation. Several Asian clubs started the qualifying round in Fall of 1987. Yomiuri FC (Japan) became the second Ja ...

for the first time.

Professional era

The club's reign as one of the most successful clubs in China would end with the advent of professionalism within the league. When the first fully professional league season started in

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

the club were given special dispensation to remain as semi-professional as possible by having all their members remain active military members, however the club did start to take in sponsorship money to pay for the cost of running the club. Some of this money was raised by being paid to play in different cities. However, at first little changed and the team even came third within the 1996 league season. Where the club really struggled was their ability to hold on to their contingent of Chinese international players such as

Hao Haidong Hao Haidong (; born 9 May 1970) is a Chinese former international footballer. He currently holds the record for being China's top goalscorer. As a player he represented Bayi Football Team, Dalian Shide and Sheffield United in a career that ...

, Hu Yunfeng and

Jiang Jin Jiang Jin (; born October 17, 1968, in Tianjin) is a former Chinese international football goalkeeper. He was the first-choice goalkeeper for China during the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Along with his older brother Jiang Hong he also became a goalk ...

who started to leave the club for better offers. Since (unlike

CSKA Moscow CSKA Moscow () is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. It was created in 1911 in the Russian Empire on base of OLLS (Skiing Society, founded 1901). Later, during the Soviet Union, Soviet era, it was the central part of the Armed Forces (sports ...

Partizan Belgrade FC Fudbalski klub Partizan ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Партизан, ; ), often referred to in English as Partizan Belgrade, is a Serbian professional football club based in Belgrade. It forms a major part of the JSD Partizan mu ...

who split from their armies and became professional clubs) it remained the representative team of the PLA, and unlike other clubs in China, Bayi were unable to sign foreign players. They therefore struggled to replace their best players and were relegated to the second tier for the first time in their history. With less money coming in the club continued to take offers from other cities and sponsors to play for. They moved to

and

to accommodate their sponsors and while this worked for a brief period. The club gained promotion back into the top tier – the rebranded

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Super League (), commonly known as the Chinese Super League or the CSL (), also known as the China Resources Beverage Chinese Football Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Ch ...

– which required more stringent conditions for the club to work in. The loss of prize money and stricter regulations ultimately forced Bayi to disband as the PLA saw the club as an unnecessary drain on resources. The announcement in mid 2003 coincided with the loss in form of the team who were relegated and disbanded at the end of the league season.

Crest and name history

Image:BayiZebon.png, Old Bayi Zebon crest Image:Bayi.png, Classic Bayi crest *1951–1998: Bayi FC 八一足球队 *1999: Bayi Jinsui 八一金穗 *2000–2002: Bayi Zebon(Zhenbang) 八一振邦 *2003: Bayi Xiangtan 八一湘潭

Results

All-time League Rankings *As of the end of 2003 season. No league games in 1954–1956, 1966–1973, 1975; * In group stage. Only took part in half of season. In final group stage. Key * Pld = Played * W = Games won * D = Games drawn * L = Games lost * F = Goals for * A = Goals against * Pts = Points * Pos = Final position * DNQ = Did not qualify * DNE = Did not enter * NH = Not Held *- = Does Not Exist * R1 = Round 1 * R2 = Round 2 * R3 = Round 3 * R4 = Round 4 * F = Final * SF = Semi-finals * QF = Quarter-finals * R16 = Round of 16 * Group = Group stage * GS2 = Second Group stage * QR1 = First Qualifying Round * QR2 = Second Qualifying Round * QR3 = Third Qualifying Round

Honours

Domestic

Chinese Jia-A League The National Football Jia A League (simplified Chinese: 全国足球甲A联赛), commonly known as Jia-A, was the highest tier of professional football in the People's Republic of China, during 1994 through 2003, operating under the auspices of th ...

**Champions (5): 1953, 1974, 1977, 1981, 1986 *

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. The current holders are Shanghai Port, having beaten Shandong Taishan in 2024 for their first title. H ...

**Winners (1): 1990

Invitational

* Queen's Cup Thailand **Winners (1): 1979

References

{{Reflist

External links

Chinese military football team disbanded
People's Liberation Army Association football clubs established in 1951 Association football clubs disestablished in 2003 Defunct football clubs in Beijing 1951 establishments in China 2003 disestablishments in China Defunct football clubs in China Military association football clubs in China Football clubs in Beijing Football clubs in China Football clubs in Guangxi Football clubs in Shijiazhuang Football clubs in Yunnan Football clubs in Shanxi Football clubs in Xi'an Football clubs in Henan Football clubs in Hunan