Guangzhou Matsunichi F.C.

Guangzhou Matsunichi Football Club was a professional football club based in Guangzhou, Guangdong, PR China who last played in the 21,570 capacity Xihe Sports Centre in Shaoguan. The club was established when the youth team for Guangzhou F.C. whom were allowed to participate within the Chinese football league pyramid and have promoted to the second tier was sold-off to Pan Sutong and his company Matsunichi Digital Holdings Limited to form a separate club on 28 February 1995. The club would soon gain promotion to the top tier of Chinese football where in total they spent three seasons before suffering relegation at the 1999 league season. When the club experienced another relegation campaign in 2000, Pan Sutong decided to pull his funding for the club, which officially became defunct on 26 November 2000. History The club was founded on the basis of the youth team for Guangzhou F.C. who were established in 1990 and allowed to participate within the Chinese football league pyramid. They were often referred to as Guangzhou B and in their first appearance within the Chinese leagues they entered the third tier in the 1992 season where they came third, which was enough to gain promotion for the 1993 campaign. After the 1993 league season was restructured the club were allowed to make their second appearance in the 1994 campaign, this time within the second tier where they went on to come third. With these impressive positions and with the dawn of professionalism, which allowed private investors to own football clubs the club decided to take advantage of this and separate from their parent club and sell the team to Pan Sutong and his company Matsunichi Digital Holdings Limited to form Guangzhou Matsunichi F.C. on 28 February 1995. In the club's debut season under new ownership the team continued their upswing in results and came runners-up within the division at the end of the 1995 campaign and gained promotion to the top tier for the first time. A reunion with Guangzhou Apollo would also occur on 25 June and 1 July 1995 within the Chinese FA Cup that saw Guangzhou Matsunichi win 4–3 on aggregate. The team's constantly rising trajectory, however would come to an end in the 1996 league season after the club were unable to handle the top tier and experienced relegation at the end of the campaign.