Shenzhen Funde Holdings Group and Yanbian Changbaishan FC have agreed to extend their partnership by signing a strategic cooperation deal under which the Shenzhen-based company will acquire a 70% stake in Yanbian FC.

Under the deal, Yanbian Changbaishan FC, which earned promotion to the top-flight Chinese Super League (CSL) for next year, will be renamed Yanbian Funde FC and will have a corporate administration structure. The club will be under joint administration. 

As part of the deal, Shenzhen Funde Group will provide the CSL club with advanced management experience and stable financial support with the aim of building a strong team and a famous football brand in China.  

The deal is built on their original partnership reached in April, under which Funde’s life-insurance brand, Funde Sino Life, are to provide 80 million yuan for the club’s future development over a  three-year period. 

Yanbian were supposed to be relegated from the second-division China League One to the third-tier China League Two last year, but when one of the second-tier clubs, Shaanxi Wuzhou, was dissolved due to financial problems, Yanbian were allowed to stay in League One.

Given that reprieve, Yanbian won the second-tier competition with 17 wins, 10 draws and three losses in 2015, thus earning promotion to the Chinese Super League for 2016.

Source: NetEase

Proofread by John Devlin