Posts tagged ‘sports’

11/04/2013

The Masters: Teenager Guan provides taste of China’s golfing ambition

CNN: “The legendary Jack Nicklaus may have won the most titles, a 21-year-old Tiger Woods may have been the youngest champion and Gary Player may have made the most appearances, but a little-known Chinese golfer will be added to the illustrious list of Masters record-holders on Thursday.

Guan Tianlang, now 14, qualified for this week's Masters when -- as the youngest player in the field, then rated 490th in the world amateur rankings -- he beat a host of senior golfers to win the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in Thailand.

For when Guan Tianlang steps onto the first tee, the Chinese teenager will become the youngest competitor — at the age of 14 years and five months — in the 80 years of the prestigious Augusta event, beating the previous record held by then 16-year-old Matteo Manassero.

The boy who has been taking time out of school in his home city Guangzhou earned his place at golf’s top table when, as the youngest player in the field, he beat a host of senior players to win last year’s Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in Thailand.

He is just the latest of a small but expanding list of teenage — and, remarkably, even pre-teen — golfers to be impacting upon the highest echelons of golf, despite being drawn from a playing pool estimated to be no more than 600 teenage boys and girls.”

via The Masters: Teenager Guan provides taste of China’s golfing ambition – CNN.com.

04/03/2013

* David Beckham takes up China football ambassador role

BBC: “David Beckham has become a global ambassador for Chinese football to help the image of the country’s game.

David Beckham

The Chinese Super League has recently been hit by the exit of ex-Chelsea striker Didier Drogba, while also suffering from a match-fixing scandal.

Beckham, 37, will combine the role with playing for Paris St-Germain.

“I am honoured to have been asked to play such an important role at this special time in Chinese football history,” he said in a statement.

His role will involve attending league matches in China and visiting clubs to help promote the game to children.

“I’m excited by the prospect of promoting the world’s greatest game to Chinese sports fans as I’ve seen first hand the growing interest in football there,” added Beckham.

“This is a wonderful sport that inspires people across the world and brings families together, so I’m relishing the opportunity of introducing more fans to the game.”

Drogba, 34, joined Chinese side Shanghai Shenhua in June 2012 on a two-and-half-year deal after helping Chelsea to win last season’s Champions League.

But the Ivory Coast international left the Chinese club in January 2013 for Turkish side Galatasaray, in a controversial loan move.

Drogba’s former Chelsea team-mate and ex-France striker Nicolas Anelka also left Shanghai in a short-term loan move to Italian side Juventus.

The departures have been a blow to the Chinese game ahead of the 2013 Chinese Super League season starting on 8 March.

There have also been problems with corruption, which resulted in the country’s former top referee being jailed and 58 officials being banned for match-fixing by Fifa and the Chinese Football Association.”

via BBC Sport – David Beckham takes up China football ambassador role.

03/08/2012

* China Heads to Soccer Field

WSJ: “Chinese investors will take an undisclosed stake in one of Italy’s most famous soccer teams, and a Chinese construction company intends to erect a stadium for the club, in China’s latest step to raise its profile in Europe.

Europe’s soccer leagues have attracted Asian investors. Diego Milito, right, of Inter Milan in action Thursday.

Internazionale Milano SpA, also known as Inter Milan, said Thursday that a group of Chinese investors plans to buy a stake in the club to become its second-largest shareholder. The company didn’t disclose financial terms or the identities of the buyers.

Inter Milan also said that China Railway 15th Bureau Group Co., a company controlled by listed China Railway Construction Corp., 1186.HK -3.28% will build a stadium for the club that is expected to be completed by 2017. Inter Milan currently shares the San Siro stadium with rival team A.C. Milan, owned by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

China Railway Construction said in a filing that it isn’t part of the Chinese consortium buying the equity stake. It said its China Railway 15th Bureau unit is in talks with the team over building a soccer stadium and that it will make an announcement when a contract is signed.

The move is the latest by well-funded Asian investors into Europe’s soccer leagues. Hong Kong businessman Carson Yeung bought Birmingham City of the U.K.’s Premier League in 2009, and AirAsia Bhd. Chief Executive Tony Fernandes bought the Premier League’s Queens Park Rangers last year.

It also marks China’s latest step to win construction projects in the West, broadening from the country’s sizable role in big-ticket projects in Africa and other parts of the developing world.”

via China Heads to Soccer Field – WSJ.com.

See also: https://chindia-alert.org/2012/02/13/pattern-of-chinese-overseas-investments/

14/07/2012

* China football fans greet Didier Drogba at Shanghai

BBC: “Ivory Coast football star Didier Drogba has arrived to a hero’s welcome in China, to take up a contract to play for Shanghai Shenhua.

Hundreds of fans of the struggling Chinese Super League team greeted the 34-year-old former Chelsea star at Shanghai’s Pudong airport.

Drogba’s reported $300,000 (£193,000) a week salary makes him one of the world’s highest paid footballers.

Drogba is among many foreign stars who have made recent moves to China.

He joins former Chelsea colleague Nicolas Anelka at Shanghai Shenhua.

Soon after his arrival, Drogba insisted he had not come for the money.

He said: “It would have been easier for me to stay in Europe, but I chose China. Money is not the most important [thing]. I am here for a whole new experience.””

via BBC News – China football fans greet Didier Drogba at Shanghai.

First cheap plastic toys, then mid-level products, onto hi-tech gadgets; and now international football?

13/06/2012

* China football ex-chiefs Nan Yong and Xie Yalong jailed

BBC News: “Two ex-heads of China’s football league have been jailed for 10-and-a-half years each for corruption, making them the most senior football officials sentenced. Nan Yong and his predecessor Xie Yalong were both accused of accepting bribes. Nan was also fined 200,000 yuan ($31,400; £20,200) and Xie is set to have personal assets and illegal takings confiscated.

China has increased efforts to clean up the game, hit by a series of scandals.

Nan, charged with 17 counts of taking bribes, was sentenced by a court in Tieling in north-eastern China. Xie, who was sentenced in Dandong, denies the charges against him adding that he only confessed to the allegations under torture. More than 900,000 yuan in personal assets and illegal takings of his are set to be confiscated.

Several other verdicts have also been delivered in similar cases in other cities, Chinese media reported.

In Dandong, a former national team captain was also sentenced to 10 years and six months in jail and fined 200,000 yuan. Four former national team players were sentenced in Shenyang for to up to six years’ jail and fined 500,000 yuan for taking bribes and match fixing.

via BBC News – China football ex-chiefs Nan Yong and Xie Yalong jailed.

17/04/2012

* Irish horses to race in China as Magnier wins €38m stud deal

Independent.ie: “HUNDREDS of Irish horses are set to race regularly in China after bloodstock giant Coolmore announced a ground-breaking deal. The agreement is part of a plan that will see Ireland help set up a horse racing industry in Tianjin, China’s fourth largest city.

Horse racing in Sligo, Ireland

Horse racing in Sligo, Ireland (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Top Irish stud farm Coolmore – owned by racing tycoon John Magnier and based in Fethard, Co Tipperary – will help China set up a similar operation. The planned equine centre will be the first of its kind in the country.

It is due to open for business next year. The contract is worth more than €38.5m to Ireland over three years.

via Irish horses to race in China as Magnier wins €38m stud deal – Irish, Business – Independent.ie.

A sure sign that China is liberalising. As far as we know gambling is illegal in China. Though, behind closed doors …  

But now we are going to see real horse racing in China. Or will the races be run without any betting?!

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