China’s long march to football domination
China’s football has followed the same model as in other industries, purchase abroad to learn best practice
A year ago this week, a company backed down from one of the more bizarre propositions that European football had seen. Ledman, an LED manufacturer that sponsors the Chinese Super League and promotes itself as a “strategic partner of Chinese FA”, took over the naming rights of the Portuguese second tier and thought it could take a whole lot more with it.
Its plan was, in fact, to force ten Chinese players onto ...