China’s professional league was established in 1994. There have many far reaching changes in the business and culture of the industry since then. Up until 2003 there were 15 teams in the A League and 14 teams in the B League but as of 2009 there are now 16 teams in the China Football Association Super League (CSL=1st division) and 13 teams in the China B League (2nd division). There were concerns that football’s popularity would suffer following two unsuccessful campaigns to qualify for the FIFA World Cup but in contrast the audience for CSL matches has increased. As of the first half of 2009 fans traveling to the stadiums for matches averaged 16,600 and TV ratings have also increased. Currently the league is focusing on campaigns of “A healthy league” and “Strengthening promotions” in order to promote the popularity of the leagues. For the 2009 season Dalian Shide acquired former Korea Rep. national team FW AN Jon Fang and Tianjin Teda added former Italian national team MF Damiano TOMAGE as more high class foreigners start to take part and improve the level of the league and make it an overall more interesting league.
Since 1994 the team to have won the most times is Dalian Shide who managed to win 3 consecutive titles two separate occasions in 1996-1998 and again in 2000-2002 for a total of 8 championships. In 2007 Changchun Yatai won their first ever title and in 2008 Shandong Luneng were crowned champions again after a 2 year gap.

 As of July 2009

2008 league standings + promoted clubs