[2][3] In July 2016, Yifang made changes of critical personnel including chairman and technical staffs, replacing their manager Mikael Stahre with Milinko Pantić from Atletico Madrid B,[4] and signed Lin Lefeng as the chairman, hoping to improve their performance, but it failed.

After just 8 matches, Pantić was replaced with Sergio Piernas Cárdenas, his assistant coach.

Yifang had experienced local derby back in the 2012 season against Dalian Shide, in the Chinese Super League.

In this season, Yifang saw chances to compete with an alternate local team Dalian Transcendence.

Source: See Results Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply.