Kim Min-Jae (1st L) of Beijing Guoan FC gets a yellow card during the quarterfinal match between Guoan and Ulsan Hyundai FC of South Korea at the AFC Champions League in Doha, Qatar, Dec. 10, 2020. (Photo by Nikku/Xinhua)China’s top-division soccer league member Beijing Guoan may keep its 28-year-old name under the CFA regulations requiring clubs to remove reference to sponsors or investors.BEIJING, March 20 (Xinhua) — Chinese Super League (CSL) side Beijing Guoan will most likely keep its 28-year-old name, according to the chief of Chinese Football Association (CFA).The CFA introduced regulations last December requiring clubs to remove reference to sponsors or investors in the club names in a bid to keep the club name stable in the long run.”The Sinobo Group’s purchase of Citic Guoan shares in the club is underway, which will keep the club name as Beijing Guoan,” CFA president Chen Xuyuan said in a live streaming interview on Friday.Fans of Beijing Sinobo Guoan cheer for the team during the 13th round match between Shanghai SIPG and Beijing Sinobo Guoan at the postponed 2020 season Chinese Football Association Super League (CSL) Suzhou Division in Suzhou, east China’s Jiangsu Province, Sept. 25, 2020. (Xinhua/Ji Chunpeng)As Citic Guoan will no longer be Guoan club’s investor, the club is able to keep Guoan in its name which it has used since its founding in December 1992. China launched its professional football league, the First Division League, in 1994, which is the predecessor of the current Chinese Super League.”In the past, the club owners changed quickly, so that the club names also had to change. It was not beneficial to cultivating the football culture in China,” Chen explained. (by Zhao Jiantong) ■