Tag Archives: CSL

Football

Is Xi Jinping’s love of soccer a double-edged sword?

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There’s a particular official within Chinese soccer circles who has developed a habit of starting each press conference or meeting with the words “I don’t know anything about football, but…” The intent is clear: if (when) this all goes south (again), it’s not my fault.

Xi Jinping at Croke Park in Feb 2012
Xi Jinping at Croke Park in Feb 2012

The state’s control of Chinese football is a large reason for its poor performance over the years: what is needed is a long-term plan, but Chinese officialdom rewards short-term thinking.

Having a man in charge of the country who loves the game would appear to be a positive, but this week’s Sports Talk column looks at how Chinese President Xi Jinping’s love of soccer may not actually be such a good thing for the sport after all…

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Football

CSL fires another blank with dud deal

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For all the back-slapping about the CSL’s new title sponsor – a four-year deal with Ping An Insurance worth 150 million per year – in reality it’s just the latest in a long list of short-sighted moves by Chinese football authorities.

pingan Continue reading CSL fires another blank with dud deal →

Football, Golf, Olympics, Tennis

Sports round-up: CSL, surfing, golf, tennis and the invisible Paralympics

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The Chinese Super League season kicked off this past weekend, and goals were few and far between. Ominously, though, the top of the table is already occupied by Guangzhou Evergrande…

Darci Liu, China's first female pro surfer
Darci Liu, China’s first female pro surfer

That’s Online (also in the print versions) has a nice profile of Darci Liu, China’s first and so far only female professional surfer, who, amazingly, only learnt to swim at the age of 18:  Continue reading Sports round-up: CSL, surfing, golf, tennis and the invisible Paralympics →

Football

China sneaks into Asian Cup through back door

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Travelling Chinese soccer fans had better start saving up for a busy 2015.

China qualifies for Asian Cup, despite another desperate performance
China qualifies for the Asian Cup, despite another desperate performance

Days after accepting an invitation to play in the Copa America in Chile in June next year (subject to confirmation from the AFC), China will start 2015 in Australia playing in the Asian Cup after qualifying on Wednesday night.

But, as usual, China did it the hard way.

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Football

Premier League’s China deal raises more questions than answers

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First it was David Beckham, now it’s the entire English Premier League. After Becks made three visits to China this year to make money as a special ambassador for the Chinese Super League, a deal has been signed between the English Premier League and the Chinese Super League (CSL), to coincide with UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s current trip to China.

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Graeme Le Saux shows he’s still got it

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Boxing, Football, Olympics, Tennis

Weekly Wrap: Beckham, Pacquiao, Liverpool, Asian Cup & ATP

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Pac-Man, Zou Shiming have early start in Macau

Manny Pacquiao takes on Brandon Rios in Macau at around lunchtime on Sunday China time (to ensure a prime-time Saturday evening audience in the US). There was lots of talk from the Manny camp about how this one is for the Philippines given the recent typhoon, but that will all be forgotten when the bell goes. There was also a predictably entertaining build-up with trainers from each side getting into it in the gym – in other words, typical pre-bout stuff.

ImageTop Rank promoter Bob Arum said he expects around 200 million homes in China to tune in to see the main event, which, as usual, is way, way beyond the realms of reality. Continue reading Weekly Wrap: Beckham, Pacquiao, Liverpool, Asian Cup & ATP →

Baseball, Football, Golf

Weekly Wrap: Manny, golf prodigies and the return of match-fixing

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There have been a couple of fantastic, long-form articles written in recent days about sport in this part of the world. The first comes from Brook Larmer, author of the 2005 book Operation Yao Ming which details the rise of China’s most famous sporting son. Writing in the New York Times, Larmer turns his attention to golf, describing a fascinating picture of the wealthy, driven parents of kids as young as eight essentially creating their own mini versions of the state-backed sports schools that have been so successful in churning out Olympians. Here’s an extract:

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Photo credit: New York Times

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Football

Xi Jinping’s Chinese Pipe Dream

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The team behind the excellent Wild East Football blog on Chinese soccer do such a comprehensive job that, Beckham aside, I don’t often get around to focusing on what is still China’s most popular sport. But the farce that is China’s national team appears to have hit a new nadir. You might assume at this point that the only way is up, but with 114 teams currently ranked below China, there’s still plenty of room to underperform their own abysmal standards. Here is today’s Sports Talk column:

They say it’s always darkest before the dawn, but Chinese soccer appears to be in a permanent blackout. Lurching out of the shadows of match-fixing and corruption, the national team stumbles from one defeat to the next.

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