GUANGZHOU- If you like derbies, 2012 is shaping up to be your year in the Chinese Super League.

Northeast city Dalian and South China city Guangzhou will host two each, as Dalian Aerbin and Dalian Shide and Guangzhou R&F and Guangzhou Evergrande will combine to give the CSL four cross-town matches for the first time in league history.

Dalian Aerbin, which was founded in 2009 and began in the third-tier league, cruised into the top tier after snatching the second-division title two games before the end of the season.

It should be competitive with Dalian Shide, which was league champion in 2005 but finished 12th among the 16 first-tier teams this season.

Li Ming, general manager of Dalian Aerbin, spent his career as a player at Dalian Shide from 1994 to 2005. He said the competition between Aerbin and Shide should push the sport's development in Dalian, rather than creating a rivalry.

"I have spent my whole professional career at Shide - it's what brought me to success. Of course I hope Shide will become better and better in the future," said the 40-year-old, a national team regular from 1992 to 2004.

"From my perspective, the derby will only help to lift up the level of soccer in Dalian, such as the attractiveness and the quality of the game, and it's unnecessary to have the cruelty of a derby overwhelm the competitiveness of the game," he said. "I hope we can have the derby in 100 years, or even 200 years."

Wang Shun, general manager of the Aerbin Group, said the club will probably have to share a stadium with Shide in its first CSL season, but is planning to build its own stadium and training base.

Wang also told Chinese media the group will invest another 200 million yuan ($31.5 million) to upgrade the club next year.

Another derby will be staged between CSL newcomer Guangzhou R&F and newly crowned league champion Guangzhou Evergrande, which spent more than 500 million yuan to claim the club's first top-division title.

The competition between the two Cantonese teams has already begun.

At the end of June, R&F Properties bought Shenzhen Phoenix, a team struggling after relegation to the second division, and changed its name to Guangzhou R&F.

The team won 12 matches in a row after the takeover and moved to the top division one game before the end of the season.

Zhang Li, chairman of R&F Properties, said he wanted the team to qualify for the Super League this year, and take a spot in the top three next year.

"We have accomplished our first goal, and we will of course eye a better result in the Super League," said Zhang's assistant, Lu Yi.

Meanwhile, Lu said Guangzhou R&F want to introduce more Cantonese players to revive the style of Cantonese soccer. It's also an effort to gain more support from local fans, as Evergrande has few locals on its squad.

The club also has plans to bring in players from South America.

Cantonese and South American soccer are similar in style.

The club also will invest 500 million yuan to build a world-class soccer school in cooperation with La Liga's Barcelona, in Mei County of Guangdong province.

Guangzhou R&F soccer school will start its first semester on Sep 1, 2013, one year after the opening of Evergrande's new soccer academy.

China Daily