Qingdao Jonoon Football Club started out as
Shandong Economic and Trade Commission F.C. in 1990 by some retired footballers at the corporation affiliated with Shandong economic and trade commission associated with some workers at Qingdao Municipal Sanatorium. After playing in the
Chinese Yi League for three seasons, the club finished as Second Division Champions and won promotion to the
Chinese Jia-B League in 1992 – the club's first league title. As required by
Chinese Football Association, on 31 December 1993, the club set up a professional system and became the first professional football club in Qingdao. Subsequently, the club was renamed to
Qingdao Manatee F.C., the Chinese name for
manatee, "海牛 (hainiu, literally 'sea bull')", also being the nickname for the
foghorn in Tuandao
Lighthouse due to the sound it emits. Qingdao Manatee finished as the
Chinese Jia-B League Champions and won promotion to the
Chinese Jia-A League in 1994. In the following season, the club was invited to compete the
Tainland Queen's Cup and achieved the third place with 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss – the club's first international honour. However, in domestic league the club was relegated to the
Division 1B after losing an epic battle against
Sichuan Quanxing 2–3. In 1996, the club appointed Wu Hongyue as manager, who led the team to a second-place league finish and regained promotion to the
Division 1A. Soon after that season, the state-run tobacco producer – Qingdao Etsong Group started to invest the club, which changed its name to
Qingdao Etsong Hainiu F.C. the following year. From 1997 season, the club became a regular member of the top division and was never relegated since then. On November 16, 2002, after beating
Liaoning Bird 2–0 in
Etsong Sports Center, the club won its first major trophy: the 2002
Chinese FA Cup. After eight-year management by Etsong Group, the club was transferred to a privately owned cable manufacturer – Qingdao Jonoon Group and dropped the long term icon "Hainiu" from its name in December 2004. The club's new owner slashed down the budget greatly, sold up all notable players and assigned the former
Jinan taishan's coach
Yin Tiesheng as manager, who is famous for his defending style. In the following three seasons, Yin brought Jonoon to stay firmly in the middle position of the league. In 2008, after Yin's assignment as assistant coach of
China Olympic team, the club promoted the assistant coach Guo Kanfeng as head coach and retained eighth place in that season. After six-round terrible management in the following season, Guo was sacked by the club and former notable
Serbian coach
Slobodan Santrač took over as manager. Though finished at thirteenth place, the team played a beautiful attacking soccer style and even the attacking combination was duplicated by the
National Team head coach
Gao Hongbo. Soon after 2009 season, the club surprisingly sacked Santrač and reassigned Guo as actual head coach, with Dragan Jovanovič assigned as nominal head coach due to Gu's lack of qualification. In 2010, the club endured a horrible season and lost the last match against
Hangzhou Greentown 0–1, but surprisingly survived from relegation in the fourteenth place. In the 2013 league season the team's manager
Chang Woe-Ryong was sacked from the club despite the team sitting in tenth. The club would experience relegation at the end of the season and the club's owners publicly declared that one of their own players in
Gabriel Melkam was match fixing, which resulted in their relegation. Gabriel Melkam would claim that the accusations of match-fixing were a ploy by the owners not to pay his wages and he took his case to FIFA. While this was going on further claims of mismanagement would arise with the transfer of the club's captain
Liu Jian move to
Guangzhou Evergrande when it was discovered that the club had forged an extension in his contract. In the
2014 league season the club were found guilty for breaking the Chinese FA's rules and were deducted 7 points. In 2016 Qingdao Jonoon finished second-to-last in the
League One and were relegated to the
third level of the Chinese league system.
Qingdao Huanghai, another team in the League One in the same city, started to get more attention. Qingdao had no more foreign players by 2019. In the 2019 season, there were deducted six points for a rule violation. In 2026, Qingdao Jonoon started the
2026 Chinese Super League season with seven points deducted for violation of sports ethics and loss of sportsmanship, engaging in improper transactions to seek illegitimate benefits. ==Ownership and naming history==