Shenzhen Ruby FC

Early club era

Shenzhen Football Club was founded on 26 January 1994 by former Chinese players that included Rong Zhixing and Zeng Xuelin after the Chinese Football Association had allowed full professionalism and private ownership throughout their football league system. In an attempt for the City of Shenzhen to gain their first professional football team the club decided that the best way to gain funding was through memberships that included 100 corporate members and 300 individuals before changing the ownership into shareholdings. With Hu Zhigang as their first ever head coach and with players from all over the country, the club won two consecutive promotions and championships before entering the top tier of Chinese football after only two seasons, a remarkable feat named "Shenzhen speed" by the locals.

The club's first foray in the top tier, however was not a success and they were immediately relegated at the end of the 1996 campaign. In January 1997, Ping An Insurance took over the club and renamed it to "Shenzhen Ping'an". With this new ownership the club immediately won back promotion to the top tier after coming runners-up within their division. Once again the team struggled with relegation, however South Korean football legend Cha Bum-Kun was appointed as the club's first ever foreign head coach in the summer of 1998. Cha consolidated the club's status within the top tier with two successful relegation escapes. Meanwhile, the club made a long-term combined signing of 14 hot prospects from Tianjin Locomotive's 1st team as fresh blood, among them included future prospects Li Weifeng and Li Yi.

At the start of the 2000 season on March 27, newly appointed head coach the eccentric Brazilian Edson Tavares caught six players Peng Weiguo, Chen Yongqiang, Zhang Jun, Sun Gang, Wang Chao and Yao Li with prostitutes in the team hotel. This internal incident was leaked to the media becoming an open scandal, however the club claimed inconsistencies with the story, nevertheless the players involved had to make a public apology while the club relieved Tavares of his post as a scapegoat. General manager Zhu Guanghu took over in May and started his regime during, which Shenzhen became a major force within the league and placed fifth in 2001 before coming runners-up in 2002 (though through a joking poker sortition at a formal FA judgment process, in which coach Xie Feng picked card 6 and stated it as 9 and thus won a runner-up back for Shenzhen) their highest finish at the time.

Jianlibao Group

The Jianlibao Group took over the club before the 2003 campaign and renamed the club after its own brand. The club came fourth within the league and brought in major Chinese signings in Yang Chen who returned to China after spending several seasons in Germany while Zheng Bin answered the summon of Zhu, his coach back in the international youth team. These inclusions as well as the defender Zheng Zhi converted to a playmaker saw Shenzhen Jianlibao sensationally won the first ever Chinese Super League title in 2004 despite severe financial problems leaving players unpaid for seven months. By-then head coach Zhu Guanghu was subsequently awarded the coach of the year award and was appointed head coach of the Chinese national team.

The following season quickly saw the team fall from grace and they only managed a twelfth-place finish (third from bottom) in the league. The new head coach Chi Shangbin resigned after only three mouths due to his poor relationship with the squad, especially from then-captain Li Weifeng and senior players like Li Yi and Yang Chen. Chi was unhappy due to the senior players' influential control over the team, their unprofessional behavior and discipline especially with gambling. He tried to regain control of the squad with his strictness, but most of the players reacted fiercely by training and playing even more poorly. Li Weifeng punched Chi's office window; Yang Chen, who was already a relatively gentle person got upset too and repeatedly exposed the uselessness of Chi's policy to media, which saw the then owner Yang Saixin having to let Chi go. Both of them later infamously and sensationally labeled the troublemakers as "QiuBa"(Football-lord). Throughout the chaos, Shenzhen were still able to reach the 2005 AFC Champions League semi-finals after defeating Saudi Arabian side Al-Ahli despite losing the first leg in Jeddah before they were later heavily defeated by UAE champions Al Ain FC 6–0 in the semi-finals.