Zibo Cuju Football Club () is a professional Chinese football club that currently participates in the

China League One 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 ...

. The team is based in

Zibo Zibo (, ) is a prefecture-level city in central Shandong province, China. It borders the provincial capital Jinan to the west, Tai'an to the southwest, Linyi to the south, Weifang to the east, Dongying to the northeast, and Binzhou to th ...

History

Zibo Sunday was founded in June 1982 inspired by the

1982 FIFA World Cup The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain between 13 June and 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy, who defeated West Germany 3–1 i ...

. As the founders of the team mainly played football together on Sunday, they used Sunday as the club's name. They officially registered as an amateur club on 18 July 1996. Zibo Sunday finished the third place in the 2011 AFC Vision China Championship and won qualification for the 2012 Chinese FA Cup, which they lost to

China League Two 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 A ...

club Dongguan Nancheng 3–0. On 30 September 2017, Zibo Sunday won promotion to

after they advanced to semi-final of

2017 China Amateur Football League The 2017 China Amateur Football League season, also known as Shan Lin Financial China Amateur Football League for sponsorship reasons, was the 16th season since its establishment in 2002. It is the highest amateur association football league in ...

by beating Lhasa Urban Construction Investment 1–0, and eventually, winning the entire Championship by beating

Anhui Hefei Guiguan Anhui Hefei Guiguan Football Club () was a Chinese football club based in Hefei, Anhui. On 11 July 2018, the Chinese Football Association The Chinese Football Association (CFA) is the governing body for association football, beach soccer ...

in the final. After competing in

2018 China League Two The 2018 Chinese Football Association Division Two League season was the 29th season since its establishment in 1989. The league is expanded to 28 teams, with 14 teams in North Group and 14 teams in South Group. On 11 July 2018, Anhui Hefei Guig ...

and ending up in a mid-table finish, Zibo Sunday F.C. changed their name to Zibo Cuju F.C. in January 2019, stressing the significance of

being the home of

Cuju ''Cuju'' or ''Ts'u-chü'' (蹴鞠) is an ancient Chinese football game. Cuju is the earliest known recorded game of football. It is a competitive game that involves kicking a ball through an opening into a net without the use of hands. Descripti ...

, a form of proto-football sport in ancient China.

Name history

* 1982–2018 Zibo Sunday S.C. 淄博星期天 * 2019– Zibo Cuju F.C. 淄博蹴鞠

Players

Current squad

Coaching staff

Managerial history

* Liu Mengyang (2015) * Zhang Chonglai (2016) * Liu Meng (2017) * Hou Zhiqiang (2018–2020) * Park Chul (2021) * Huang Hongyi (2021–)

Results

All-time league rankings ''As of the end of 2019 season.'' * Did not qualify to the final stage. AFC Vision China Championship. In 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

References

{{China League One Football clubs in China Association football clubs established in 1982 Sport in Shandong Zibo 1982 establishments in China