by James Montague
Bloomsbury, £16.99
Reviewed by Paul Rees
From WSC 368, October 2017
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Stories
For some reason police forces once thought the lure of collecting cards depicting Ian Snodin in an England shirt would stop people committing crime
Andrew Crawford believes that an influx of money, famous players and foreign managers could help football become China’s most popular sport
The Chinese Super League (CSL) season gets underway on March 15. Most of the country’s big clubs receive substantial funding from various wealthy business tycoons or state-owned enterprises, and several teams have recruited expensive foreign reinforcements. Shanghai Shenhua started things off last December in spectacular fashion by snapping up Chelsea’s Nicolas Anelka for £190,000 a week. Since then, Beijing Guoan have spent around £1.9 million to secure strikers Andrija Kaludjerovic and Reinaldo, while Shandong Luneng have paid a reported £830,000 for their own Brazilian forward, Gilberto Macena.
Questions are being raised about the influence one agent has over La Liga’s biggest deals, reports Dermot Corrigan
Given the financial difficulties Spanish football faces, the summer transfer market was mostly quiet, with the majority of deals either free transfers or loans. However, this general trend was bucked by Portuguese super-agent Jorge Mendes and former Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon, whose dealings drew attention from the Spanish media and even FIFA, raising questions about just who makes the important decisions at some of La Liga’s biggest clubs.
Though lavish spending dominates the headlines, John Duerden thinks structural development is changing the Chinese scene
Talk of a “new dawn” in Chinese football would have fans rolling their eyes, so often have they heard it before. This time, though, the talk of money in the local game doesn’t revolve around bribes or betting, but investment in star players in the top tier and, more importantly, funds found for grassroots and youth football.