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How Popular Is Football In China?

Zhang Lijia invites Rowan Simons to talk about his book which encompasses his 20-year knowledge of sports in China, jparticularly the development of Chinese football.

It’s one of the most popular, best supported, and most widely recognized sporting brands in the world. After the Beatles, the Northern English city of Liverpool is best known for its football club. But could the reds as they are known, come to be owned by well… the reds? Chinese businessman Kenny Huang has tabled a bid to buy the famous club from its current owners, American businessmen George Gillet and Tom Hicks, who recently auctioned off baseball club Texas Rangers.

China's soccer scandal continues. And in the latest twist to this murky tale, it's been reported that Chinese players paid huge bribes for places at the national football team's training camp - and even bigger ones to play in international matches. Earlier in the week police detained the China Football Association's former top official, Nan Yong, and deputy Yang Yimin. According to the Oriental Post, a single trip to the national youth squad's camp cost $12,000, while a place at the adult team's camp was priced at $15,000. A call-up to an actual official match required a bribe of $30,000.

Investigators launched a drive against match fixing and corruption last year following complaints from state leaders over poor performance by the national team, which now ranks No. 93 in the world. Last month, 16 team officials and others were arrested on suspicion of bribing or threatening players and referees to determine the outcome of games they had bet on.

Police had been questioning Chinese Football Association chief, Nan Yong, about alleged corruption in the Chinese game for some days. On Friday China's General Administration of Sport announced that he had been removed from office. Nan, only took over as head of the– the CFA - early last year. Deputy director Yang Yimin, who was in charge of refereeing in the country's professional leagues has also been dismissed.

Cui Dalin, deputy director of the General Administration of Sport told reporters that certain people and their acts has tainted the image of the CFA, put Chinese soccer into jeopardy and hurt the fans' feelings, said on chinadaily.com.

This is the third time that China's Ministry ofsoccer scandal has released details of the ongoing probe into soccer scandals.

Well, online gaming is one of the biggest growing markets in China. Unlike America, where video games on a console are popular, here it's all about computer games and the online interaction they foster. BON's Tony Zhou tells us about one group of enthusiasts who've made one hugely popular online farm game - into a real-life farm!

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