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Article: FOCUS FOOTBALL IN CHINA: Football's coming East Rogan Taylor on how China's new age of commercial enterprise is bringing the people's game to the world's most populous nation
- Article from:
- The Sunday Telegraph London
- Article date:
- December 15, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1996 The Sunday Telegraph London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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IF you ask a cab driver in Shanghai or Beijing about the
composition of the Chi-nese cabinet, you'd be lucky if he could
name Deng Xiaoping; if you ask, however, about the composition of
the Milan or Manchester United forward line, you'll get it chapter
and verse.
Football is hitting the fast lane in the land of a billion
bicycles. The `open door' policy which has invited foreign capital
into China has also had its counterpart in Chinese football. Since
1994, a professional league has been established with more than 30
football clubs registering as independent commercial organisations,
looking to the open market for financial support.
It hasn't been long coming, either. With huge ...