As the Italian parliament debates whether Italy should formally recognise that China is guilty of genocide on its Uyghur citizens, the Chinese state is a part-owner of the Scudetto championsYou might think Liverpool have had an underwhelming Premier League title defence. The mid-season collapse. The failed attempt to join a Super League. The strangely maudlin video address from the club’s owner, delivered in the style of a baffled senior executive apologising for an involuntary bladder malfunction at the company golf day. None of this is ideal.But spare a thought for the reigning Chinese Super League champions, Jiangsu FC, who are nowhere to be seen four games into the new season. Related: Conte overthrows Juve’s kingdom to restore Inter to Serie...
For all the nationalism and political will, China is ploughing millions into youth development and the intention is to win the World Cup within the next 30 yearsThis week I watched the Chinese Super League so you don’t have to, taking in the full, slightly wild 90 minutes of the champions Guangzhou Evergrande versus last year’s runners-up Jiangsu Suning, the most recent of the CSL fixtures being shown in dribs and drabs by Sky Sports.There was a vague point to all this beyond simple recreation. The lure of the Chinese Super League seems to lurk behind every story, every noise off, presented as a kind of gilded career-dustbin for every ageing star with a hungry agent to feed. Diego Costa...
Premier League referee’s come-and-get-me plea to the MLS or China displays all the hallmarks of being dictated by his agent, and after lunch at thatFunny to think that Mark Clattenburg inking a sponsorship deal while still a serving referee once felt like a harbinger of the endtimes. O Premier League, what hath you wrought? These days, alas, you get an altogether more worrying class of harbinger. Take the starstruck member of Donald Trump’s gopping Floridian private members club, Mar-a-Lago, who spent the weekend filling his social media with insanely revelatory posts about the presidential entourage. “This is Rick … He carries the ‘football’. The nuclear football (also known as the atomic football, the president’s Emergency Satchel, the button, the black...
In the face of the lavish salaries in the Chinese Super League, MLS clubs might have to pump the brakes on ageing stars. But that could prove to be a blessingA giant is rising in the east, intent on disrupting world football’s consensus. The Chinese Super League, with its many cash-rich clubs owned by various billionaires, has been rampaging through recent transfer windows, prying away star players from the old guard in Europe.And it’s happened quickly: Oscar, Axel Witsel, John Obi Mikel, Carlos Tevez, Ramires, Alex Teixeira, Jackson Martinez and others have moved to China recently for outlandish transfer fees, many of which have dwarfed the financial standards set in the Premier League, La Liga and Serie A. Related: US...
Teams are trying to outspend each other in an ostentatious show of strength, although the new gravy train may not last forever after the latest government intervention‘It was a very difficult decision because on one hand there was a great team and a top club like Juventus,” explained Axel Witsel last week. “But on the other there was a crucial offer for my family that I couldn’t turn down.”The Belgium international’s surprising move to Tianjin Quanjian did not attract the same attention as Oscar or Carlos Tevez, although in terms of the Chinese Super League’s burgeoning reputation as the new pacesetters in the global transfer market, it is perhaps even more significant. In exchange for joining the newly promoted side,...