# 2004 Chinese Super League

The 2004 Chinese Super League was the debut season of the establishment of the Chinese Football Association Super League (中国足球协会超级联赛 or 中超), also known as the Chinese Super League. Sponsored by Siemens Mobile, it is the eleventh season of professional association football league and the 43rd top-tier league season in China. The premier football league in China under the auspices of the Chinese Football Association, the season started on May 15 and ended December 4 where it was planned that no teams would be relegated at the end of the season.

## Promotion and relegation

Teams promoted from 2003 Jia-B League
* None
Teams relegated after end of 2003 Jia-A League
* Chongqing Qiche (Merged with Yunnan Hongta)
* August 1st
* Shaanxi Guoli

## Overview

The first Chinese Super League (CSL) season was greeted with great enthusiasm by the media and the FA, with the decision to create a new top tier league in China made in order to freshen up Chinese football. The previous ten seasons of the old Chinese first division had been successful and had improved the quality of play in China. However, the Chinese Football Association felt that a change was needed to give Chinese football a further boost.
The decision to create the Chinese Super League was made before the 2003 Chinese season and of the 15 First Division teams competing in the 2003 season, it was decided that three teams would be relegated with no promotion at all from the second tier league. The remaining 12 teams would compete in the inaugural Super League season, which saw Chongqing Qiche remain within the league despite being relegated after they merged with seventh place team Yunnan Hongta.
It was planned that one team would be relegated with two teams to be promoted into the CSL at the end of the season but the relegation was cancelled halfway through and so for the second season the Super League had 14 teams.

## Controversy

There were many controversial events during the season including the discovery that some players were betting against their own teams and losing games deliberately. Some referees were also suspected of fixing matches by awarding dubious penalty kicks and handing out cards freely. The most notorious incidents happened during two matches, one game involving Beijing Hyundai and the other Dalian Shide. In their respective matches, the players were unhappy about the referee's decisions and they protested by abandoning the match halfway. The CFA took both incidents seriously and handed out punishments by docking points off the two guilty teams.

## Upsets

The season produced one of the biggest upset in Chinese football history. Shenzhen Jianlibao, coached by Zhu Guanghu, was facing financial problems and owed its players several months of salary. However, they still managed to finish as champions and even more remarkably, their defence only conceded 13 goals in 22 matches, the least in the league.
Another team causing an upset at the wrong end of the table was Shanghai Shenhua who had been Champions in the previous season and during the 2004 season had played in the prestigious AFC Champions League. However, they played poorly in the 2004 season and finished 3rd from bottom, only 1 point above bottom placed team, Chongqing Qiche. If there had been relegation in the season, Shanghai would have found themselves battling against the drop.

## Personnel

| Team | Manager |
| Beijing Hyundai | Wei Kexing |
| Chongqing Qiche | |
| Dalian Shide | |
| Inter Shanghai | Cheng Yaodong |
| Liaoning Zhongyu | Ma Lin |
| Qingdao Beilaite | Wang Weiman |
| Shandong Luneng | Ljubiša Tumbaković |
| Shanghai Shenhua | Valery Nepomnyashchy |
| Shenyang Ginde | |
| Shenzhen Jianlibao | Zhu Guanghu |
| Sichuan Guangdong | Gao Huichen |
| Tianjin TEDA | Qi Wusheng |

## Foreign players

The number of foreign players is restricted to three, but all teams can only use two foreign players on the field in each game. Players from Hong Kong, Macau and Chinese Taipei are deemed to be native players in CSL.
* Players name in bold indicates the player is registered during the mid-season transfer window.
* Players in italics were out of the squad or left the club within the season, after the pre-season transfer window, or in the mid-season transfer window, and at least had one appearance.
| Club | Player 1 | Player 2 | Player 3 | Former players |
| Beijing Hyundai | Krisztián Kenesei | Dan Alexa | Branko Jelić | |
| Chongqing Qiche | Ivan Bulat | Radu Niculescu | Victor Naicu | Constantin Schumacher Viorel Domocoș |
| Dalian Shide | Adilson | Zoran Janković | Ermin Šiljak | Dave de Jong |
| Inter Shanghai | Zé Alcino | Kwame Ayew | Kola Adams | Ivan Bulat Régis Dorn |
| Liaoning Zhongyu | Alen Avdić | Clément Lebe | Branko Savić | |
| Qingdao Beilaite | André Gaspar | Josip Bulat | Oleksandr Holovko | Yssouf Koné Joaquim Ferraz Serhiy Konovalov Heberley Sosa |
| Shandong Luneng | Nicolas Ouédec | Darko Anić | Vladimir Matijašević | |
| Shanghai Shenhua | Jörg Albertz | Saúl Martínez | Peter Vera | |
| Shenyang Ginde | Sead Bučan | Prince Ikpe Ekong | Sam Ayorinde | |
| Shenzhen Jianlibao | Auricélio Neres | Marek Zając | Djima Oyawolé | Zoltán Kovács |
| Sichuan Guancheng | Miodrag Pantelić | Lee Kyung-soo | Daniel Nannskog | |
| Tianjin TEDA | Alyaksandr Khatskevich | Bogdan Mara | Ionel Gane | José Luis Díaz Ricardo Ahmet Dursun |

## League table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | Shenzhen Jianlibao (C) | 22 | 11 | 9 | 2 | 30 | 13 | +17 | 42 | Qualification to AFC Champions League group stage |
| 2 | Shandong Luneng | 22 | 10 | 6 | 6 | 44 | 29 | +15 | 36 | Qualification to AFC Champions League group stage |
| 3 | Inter Shanghai | 22 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 39 | 31 | +8 | 32 | |
| 4 | Liaoning Zhongyu | 22 | 10 | 2 | 10 | 39 | 40 | −1 | 32 | |
| 5 | Dalian Shide | 22 | 10 | 6 | 6 | 33 | 29 | +4 | 30 | |
| 6 | Tianjin TEDA | 22 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 28 | 29 | −1 | 29 | |
| 7 | Beijing Hyundai | 22 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 35 | 33 | +2 | 28 | |
| 8 | Shenyang Ginde | 22 | 7 | 5 | 10 | 23 | 29 | −6 | 26 | |
| 9 | Sichuan Guancheng | 22 | 4 | 11 | 7 | 29 | 37 | −8 | 23 | |
| 10 | Shanghai Shenhua | 22 | 4 | 10 | 8 | 28 | 37 | −9 | 22 | |
| 11 | Qingdao Beilaite | 22 | 4 | 9 | 9 | 21 | 28 | −7 | 21 | |
| 12 | Chongqing Qiche | 22 | 4 | 9 | 9 | 14 | 31 | −17 | 21 | |
* ↑ Dalian Shide were docked 6 points for abandoning a match in protest of a referee's call
* ↑ Beijing Hyundai were docked 3 points for abandoning a match in protest of a referee's call

## Top scorers

| Rank | Scorer | Club | Goals |
| 1 | Kwame Ayew | Inter Shanghai | 17 |
| 2 | Li Jinyu | Shandong Luneng | 13 |
| 3 | Branko Jelić | Beijing Hyundai | 11 |
| 4 | Li Xiaopeng | Shandong Luneng | 10 |
| 5 | Tao Wei | Beijing Hyundai | 9 |
| 5 | Ermin Šiljak | Dalian Shide | 9 |
| 5 | Daniel Nannskog | Sichuan Guancheng | 9 |
| 8 | Djima Oyawolé | Shenzhen Jianlibao | 8 |
| 9 | Zé Alcino | Inter Shanghai | 7 |
| 9 | Guo Hui | Liaoning Zhongyu | 7 |
| 9 | Yu Genwei | Tianjin TEDA | 7 |

## Attendances
### League

* Total attendance: 1,430,600
* Average attendance: 10,838

### Clubs

| Football club | Average attendance |
| Shandong Luneng | 23,636 |
| Chongqing Qiche | 15,727 |
| Shanghai Shenhua | 13,636 |
| Tianjin TEDA | 13,182 |
| Dalian Shide | 11,273 |
| Shenzhen Jianlibao | 10,364 |
| Beijing Hyundai | 10,864 |
| Inter Shanghai | 8,455 |
| Liaoning Zhongyu | 7,727 |
| Sichuan Guancheng | 5,545 |
| Shenyang Ginde | 5,000 |
| Qingdao Beilaite | 4,645 |