Sina extends PGA Tour partnership
Golf is a sport that is set to explode in China and internet giant Sina wants in on the action. The US-based PGA Tour has agreed a three-year extension to its existing agreement with Sina to produce and manage its Chinese-language website, an arrangement that began in 2008. Mandarin-language mobile and tablet apps are also expected later this year.
Sina w...
Speculation has appeared in Chinese media that All-World Superstar David Beckham will become an international ambassador for the Chinese Super League (see my earlier report here).
However, IMG, who are attempting to facilitate the deal, has told me that, contrary to reports, nothing has been confirmed at this stage, though negotiations are at an advanced stage (aren’t they always?).
That...
The 99% claim has popped up twice in recent days in the context of Chinese sports, and both times there are less than convincing arguments.
Firstly, a Shanghai Shenhua club lawyer told Sina in reference to Didier Drogba’s contested move to Galatasaray in Turkey:
“We now have evidence which we believe will give Shenhua a 99% chance of winning a lawsuit at FIFA.”
Unnamed legal so...
The latest penalties in China’s soccer match-fixing drama, handed out this week, have been a long time in coming – several players, officials and referees were already sent to prison last year – but they were still fairly significant. In summary:
--Shanghai Shenhua stripped of the 2003 league title
--2 teams deducted 6 points
--1 team docked 3 points
--3 teams fined 1 million yuan
...
This is just ridiculous. English football club Huddersfield Town has announced plans to “make its first foray into China as part of the Club’s wider International Development plan.”
From what I can work out from their convoluted press release, the club, who currently sit 18th in the Championship (i.e. near the bottom of English football’s second tier) are taking a delegation of business...
Wrestling has been in the Olympics for more than 2,600 years but looks almost certain to be axed from 2020 onwards after the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommended that wrestling no longer be included in the list of core sports. It has a final chance to save itself, but only one of baseball/softball, karate, roller sports, sport climbing, squash, wakeboarding...
Hong Kong’s lucky, lucky football fans will catch a glimpse of Manchester United’s triallists, youth team players and kit men on July 29th when they play Kitchee FC at Hong Kong stadium.
Hong Kong’s reigning champions announced the news this week with Man Utd club ambassador Peter Schmeichel making all the right noises about it being a serious game and an important part of the club’s pr...
Mafia bosses, triads, kungfu gangs, invisible ninjas, Samurai swordsmen. Presumably that’s what Europol meant it said “ringleaders of Asian origin” had conspired to fix nearly 700 soccer matches for illegal betting gains. Europe’s police unit was woefully light on details when it announced the news this week so we can only speculate about what exactly has taken place.
Singapore’s Dan T...
Ferrari (法拉利) sign first Chinese sponsor
Ferrari’s Formula One team has signed a four-year deal with Weichai Power. Somewhat surprisingly given Ferrari 20+ year history in China and the importance of the Chinese market, it’s Ferrari first ever Chinese sponsor. Weichai, as I’m sure you know, produces mechanical components for heavy-duty vehicles, including buses.
Weichai Power’s pa...
It’s normally Myanmar’s politics that get the international spotlight, but this week it has been their bizarre sporting choices. The new Burmese capital Naypyidaw will host the 27th Southeast Asian Games later this year and, perhaps fittingly, they’ve chosen some new sports. Vovinam, tarungderajat, kempo and chinlone are all on the agenda and if you haven’t heard of them, you’re not alon...
It seems the Li-Ning Tower really is leaning and is in danger of crashing down. The company’s shares have fallen more than 25% since January 21, including a sizeable drop last week after the company announced plans to raise up to HK$1.87 billion by issuing convertible securities. In construction terms, that’s an awful lot of scaffolding.
The news comes just one year after massive investme...
Saturday’s Australian Open women’s tennis final will be an all-Nike affair as Li Na faces off against Victoria Azarenka (维多利亚·阿扎伦卡). Nothing particularly unusual there, given that the US sportswear giant also sponsors Maria Sharapova (玛利亚·莎拉波娃) and Serena Williams (塞雷娜·威廉姆斯). But Nike won’t quite have it all its own way.
That’s because Li Na has a deal – unique amo...
I wrote last week about why Manchester United almost certainly doesn’t have 108 million fans in China. That’s because the club doesn’t have fans, it has “followers” – exactly the word that made me suspicious in the first place. I might follow people on Twitter or Weibo, but it certainly doesn’t make me a fan.
Not surprisingly, the club is sticking to the script. Man Utd has confirmed...
The IOC says it’s looking for a new sponsor after Taiwanese computer company Acer pulled out as a member of the TOP Olympic sponsorship programme. Asus or Lenovo, anyone?
Gerhard Heiberg, the head of the IOC’s marketing team, said Acer would not necessarily be replaced by another computer company, but you have to think the most obvious replacements are like-for-like ones, with Lenovo and ...
The world’s most valuable sports franchise just got a little richer yesterday after signing deals with two Chinese companies, drinks maker Wahaha and China Construction Bank.
The deals themselves look straightforward enough: Wahaha becomes Manchester United’s first official soft drink sponsor, while CCB will produce the official Man Utd-branded credit card in China. But it was something f...
I don’t mean to patronize Wu Di (吴迪), but his first round loss to Croatia’s Ivan Dodig at the Australian Open is still something to be celebrated.
The 21-year-old from Wuhan became the first Chinese man to play in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament in the professional era. He had qualified via a wildcard playoff in Nanjing last year, and despite an early break at the start of the ...
China and Japan may be duking it out for territorial bragging rights in the East China Sea, but on the tennis court it is very much advantage China.
The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) announced this week that, from 2014, a new tournament in Wuhan will replace the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, which will celebrate a bittersweet 30th – and last – anniversary this year.
This is shapi...
12 years after China’s Olympic coming out party, Tokyo is aiming to be the next Asian city to host a Summer Olympics as one of three candidate cities for 2020. And the signs are looking good.
On September 7 in Buenos Aires, IOC President Jacques Rogge will declare victory for one of Tokyo, Istanbul and Madrid, and, if the bookmakers are to be believed, Tokyo is the favorite, noticeably ahead o...
The National Hockey League seems to have resolved its lockout –finally – but it will likely find that few people in North America care, let alone further afield. It left me wondering, though, whether a similar lockout could happen in China, or anywhere in Asia.
On the surface, a lockout of any league seems such an asinine proposition: the bottom line is that if there are no games, then there’...
Well, he might be. OK, so he probably won’t be. In fact, he almost certainly will choose to play elsewhere. But that doesn’t make for a good headline, especially where the UK tabloids are concerned.
The problem with the tabloids is that they have absolutely no obligation to tell the truth when it comes to this sort of thing. Throw in the odd “insiders say” or “a source close to the couple”...
