Description Available in: Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao Football Club is a Chinese professional football club that currently participates in the Chinese Super League under the license of the Chinese Football Association. The team is based in Guangzhou, Guangdong, and their home stadium is the Tianhe Stadium which has a seating capacity of 58,500. Their current majority shareholders are the Evergrande Real Estate Group (60%) and the e-commerce company Alibaba Group (40%).
Originally founded in 1954, their biggest achievements were winning several second tier titles before they became professional in 1993 and achieved an upswing in results, leading to a runners-up spot in China's top tier. Unable to improve upon these results the club would go through a period of stagnation and then decline before they experienced a brief revival when they won the 2007 second division; however, in 2009 the club were embroiled in a match-fixing scandal. This saw them punished with relegation; however, the Evergrande Real Estate Group decided to purchase the club and pumped significant funds into the team which saw them immediately win promotion as well as gain their first ever top tier title in the following campaign in the 2011 season. The club is the first and only Chinese football club to win AFC Champions League twice, in 2013 and 2015 respectively.