- Chinese Super League 2006
This article is about the 2006 season of the Chinese Football Association Super League (中国足球协会超级联赛 or 中超), also known as
Chinese Super League (CSL), which is the premier football league inChina under the auspices of the Chinese Football Association.The season started on
March 11 2006 and it is planned that two teams will be relegated at the end of the season.Promoted for the 2006 season
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Changchun Yatai
*Xiamen Lanshi Relegated after the 2006 season
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Chongqing Lifan Preseason
A number of changes occurred during the off season, notably some major changes to the teams. Inter Shanghai was moved to
Xi'an and was renamedXian Chanba . Shanghai Zobon was bought by Shanghai Liancheng and renamedShanghai Liancheng Zobon .Beijing Hyundai , who may not renew their contract withHyundai motors, change their team name back to their formal name, Beijing Guoan.Shenzhen Jianlibao changed its team name to
Shenzhen Kingway after finding a new sponsor inKingway brewery.There was also some speculation that
Liaoning FC would pull out from the league, and that the Chinese Football Association had prepared a schedule with only 14 teams should Liaoning have withdrawn.The biggest shock was the disbanding of
Sichuan Guancheng in January, so the league will only have 15 teams at the start of the season, 1 short of the 16 teams planned.Player transfers
Shanghai Shenhua , who qualify for theAFC Champions League , boost their squad withLi Wei Feng from the debt-riddenShenzhen Jianlibao for 6.5 million RMB, the highest transfer fee this season. In additional, Shenhua bought overLiu Yun Fei fromTianjin Teda for 0.9 million and recalled defender Du Wei fromGlasgow Celtic .Desperately in need of money, Shenzhen Jianlibao was also forced to sell China's first choice goalkeeper,
Li Leilei toShandong Luneng for 5 million; Former national strikerYang Chen to the newly promotedXiamen Lanshi for 2 million andZhou Ting toBeijing Hyundai for 3.5 millions.Other notable transfers includes
Wang Liang 's 5 million move fromLiaoning FC to Shandong,An Qi 's 4 million move from defending championsDalian Shide to Xiamen andAn Shuai ,Zhou Yi ,Sun Bing ,Cha Kejun 's four players move from Shandong toQingdao Zhongneng for 1 million each.The season
Shangdong Luneng and new comer Changchun Yatai both had a good spell early on while defending champions Dalian struggled early on. During the mid season, Changchun finally cannot kept up with the pace of the top league and gradually drops to forth in the league. Meanwhile, a record 13 league win in a row saw Shandong Luneng gaining an unassailable lead at the top. With Shandong the clear winner, the interest in the second half of the season was the race to the second place and the fight against relegation.
In the end, Chongqing Lifan was relegated with 2 games to go while the race for second went all the way down the wire before Shanghai Shenhua clinch the second spot with a last day win over Liaoning while Beijing slips. [Official CSL report by the Chinese FA (In Chinese) http://fa.sport.org.cn/ssdt/jdxw/2006-12-29/107354.html]
Final league table
P = Games Played; W = Games Won; D = Games Drawn; L = Games Lost; F = Goals For; A = Goals Against; Pts = Points
Attendances
League
*Total attendance: 2,228,300 [Same as above]
*Average attendance: 10,600Clubs
References
ee also
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Chinese Super League
*Football in China
*Chinese Football Association
*Chinese Football Association Jia League
*Chinese Football Association Yi League
*Chinese FA Cup
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