Guangzhou City F.C.
[10] Under the new ownership results significantly improved and the club gained promotion back into the top tier at the end of the 2011 China League One season.[16] There were more changes as Korean defensive midfielder Park Jong-woo and the injured and unsettled Hamdallah also left the club mid-season.Hamdallah only scored three goals in 2015, making him the club's all-time leading foreign scorer at the time with 25, one ahead of Yakubu.The disruption continued as R&F were forced to play some of their home matches at Guangzhou's University City Stadium whilst Yuexiushan was being refurbished, just as in 2012.[17] Guangzhou R&F announced Dragan Stojković as their new manager on 24 August 2015 and handed the former Yugoslav international a contract until the end of the 2017 season.[27] After a CFA Cup quarter-final loss on penalties, the club announced on 3 December 2020 that van Bronckhorst had resigned as manager for personal reasons.[30] The tie against Liaoning FC was the more intimate affair because the clubs shared the Shenyang People's Stadium in the 1994 league season compared to the Dalian fixture, which historically saw few meaningful clashes.However, the two club owners, Zhang Li and Xu Jiayin, did not view the derby with hostility and on the return fixture, which R&F won 1–0, they were seen enjoying a meal together instead of watching the game.They beat Singaporean side Warriors FC and Australian team Central Coast Mariners in the qualifying rounds but were knocked-out in the group stage.[44] R&F (Hong Kong) played their home matches at the Siu Sai Wan Sports Ground during the first season.The following year, they were permitted to play their home matches at Yanzigang Stadium in Guangzhou under the condition that all away teams' travelling expenses would be covered by R&F.