Dalian Transcendence Football Club (Chinese: 大连超越足球俱乐部) was a Chinese football club based in Dalian, Liaoning. Founded in 2013, the club played in the Chinese professional league between 2014 and 2018. They quit from the professional league and turn as amateur in January 2019 when failing to apply professional league license.
History
Dalian Transcendence F.C. was established on 18 November 2013 by Zhao Yang (赵阳) with a registered capital of 3 million Yuan to participate in the third tier of Chinese football at the beginning of the 2014 China League Two season.[1] As a publicly listed football club Zhao Yang would proclaim that this model had already seen investment reach 10 million Yuan and he would be reinvesting that money on educating the team's youth system.[2] Liu Zhongchang was brought in as the club's manager while the club's recruitment policy saw them actively bring in recently defunct Dalian Shide F.C. players, which included Han Jiabao, Hao Xingchen, Hu Zhaojun, Nan Yunqi, and Yan Song.[3] With the club choosing the same blue home jersey colours and using the same home ground of Jinzhou Stadium it saw many within the Chinese media to believe that Dalian Transcendence were actively claiming to be the successor to Dalian Shide, Zhao Yang proclaimed to be neutral on the matter.[2][4]
The club's first competitive game would be on 30 March 2014 against Guangxi Liuzhou Liuyue in the first round of the 2014 Chinese FA Cup where they won their game 3–0 at home.[5] The club's debut appearance within the league saw them come third within the league's group stages, however within the knock-out phase they were eliminated by Guizhou Zhicheng F.C. on away goals.[6] The following season the club would reach the divisions Play-off final where they lost the tie to Meizhou Kejia F.C. on penalties, however despite coming runners-up they still gained promotion to the second tier.[7]
In July 2018, the team signed naming sponsorship for the first time in club history, with local car dealer Dalian Huifeng, to compete as Dalian Huifeng Automobile Plaza (Chinese: 大连慧丰汽车广场队) for the rest of the 2018 season.[8]
On January 13, 2019, after their relegation in the 2018 season, Transcendence lost their license to compete in the 2019 China League Two, as they failed to sign the salary confirmation files. The club announced they decided to quit from the professional league and turn as amateur one day later.[9]
