 With this promotion on 1 October 1984, the club was the first Chinese team to gain sponsorship when Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. signed a $200,000 annual deal with the club.Throughout the 1990s, the Chinese Football Association were demanding more professionalism from their football teams.Guangzhou was one of the first fully professional football clubs in China after the Apollo Group took over the club on 8 January 1993.