Photo by Tsutomu Takasu (tpower1978) used under Creative Commons 2.0

FC Barcelona, the club who plays the most beautiful football in the world, is building its success in China, and they’re approaching the market in a way that no other club has done before.

Last month, Sandro Rosell, Barça’s new president, was traveling in China with his colleagues. Unlike others, their trip was not about friendly games or cooperation with local clubs, but laying down guanxi with Chinese politicians and clenching a business deal with a giant Internet firm.

Few other club is doing what Barça’s doing, which may help them working with the Chinese government rather than merely a local club, and reaching out to Chinese fans like they owe them.

Their fierce rival, Read Madrid, is the only club who plans to provide help to a football academy soon to be launched by a local club. Among all the elites, only Liverpool FC is officially engaging the fans here on Chinese micro-blogging platform on their own, a strategy only began this July, as most clubs accounts are still managed by Chinese media and fan groups.

During their stay, Mr.Rosell met the heads of the Ministry of Education in Beijing, municipal officials in Shanghai, who are in need of their help in developing its local football structure.

If one stop could best highlight their China visit, the Barça delegation spent a night at a fundraiser hosted by China Foundation for Disabled Persons, which run under the leadership of Deng Pufang, the first son of Deng Xiaoping, the former paramount leader of China. And Liu Yandong, China’s State Councilor and the only female Politburo member, serves as an honorary director of the foundation.

Yet there’s something more than fundraising to both parties, as Ms.Liu is officially the woman behind the reshuffle of Chinese football and for several times declared her interest in building up the football structure at ground-level through education, which they may seek Barça’s assistance with their La Masia model, the club’s famed football academy.

Since Xi Jinping, China’s hair-apparent, declared his high hopes for Chinese football in 2009, Liu assumed the governing role in the State Council’s ‘football investigation and research group’ to solve the puzzle of the sport.

But football further tumbled in the country. This June, the Chinese national men’s U-23 team failed to get a ticket to the London Olympics and, as if it’s not enough, the national team was disqualified from the 2014 World Cup in October.

The situation is very likely to continue. According to the Chinese Football Association, there’s only about 3,000 registered players nationwide under the age of 19. The number of football academies has been dwindling. Liaoning province, once a football powerhouse that had 21 academies ten years ago, now has none.

“If we have to do something with China, it’s better to do with the authorities,” said Laurent Colette, Barça’s chief marketing officer, in their meeting with the heads of Ministry of Education, adding it’s possible that the clubs may open academies in China, like they did in Japan and Korea.

“I think it’s a positive message coming from the central government,” said Xia Haifeng, chairman of Inter Sports, a state-owned firm founded by the Beijing government, and the exact company who arranged Barça’s China visit. “It’s good to talk about education rather than gold medals.”

Inter Sports was founded in 2005 under the mission of “importing major International competitions to the ‘Bird’s Nest’ and ‘Water Cube’”, architectural emblems of the Beijing Olympics invested by the Beijing government.

“When you talk with Inter Sports, you talk with authorities in Beijing and Shanghai. For us it’s perfect,” said Laurent.

Barça’s revenue last year hit 460 mln euros, in which only less than one percent come from the Chinese market, despite the country holds 30 percent of its fans worldwide, according to the club’s own market research numbers.

These 30 percent are nowhere to be found on Facebook or Twitter, as the two social-networking services are still blocked by the Chinese authorities.

But fans here have their own ways to follow their football heroes. On Tencent Weibo, a popular micro-blogging platform, Lionel Messi has over 14 million followers, seven times the size of Barça’s official account on Twitter.

The club signed an agreement with Tencent, which makes available the company’s 900 millon QQ users within reach, a deal that was “very satisfied” by Didac Lee, Barça’s director of new technology, who noted that the club plans to sell smart-phone apps to its Chinese fans in the future, a move that no other club ventured.

“The Internet is the best way for us to be 24-7 in China. Summer tours make a lot of money on a few days, but it’s not the best way to make loyal supporters,” said Didac.

“It’s like working out in a gym here,” Laurent stretches his arms. “First you open your arms to expand your fan base, to be sure that you reach all the possible fans here through TV, Internet, press and so on. Then to monetize, which is to create a financial link to transfer your fans into business.”

“It’s Barça 2.0 in China now”, said Xia Haifeng, who arranged the club’s friendly game in China last year in the ‘Bird’s Nest’. “Football fans here take a lot less interest in friendlies than they did before.”

“We did that in the past and don’t like that,” said Laurent. “Summer tours should be only a part of what we do here. We’ll reach the fans by 360 degree marketing to make sure this snowballing effect cast the football followers with contact and information about us, and little by little they have more reasons to become our fans.”

“Our plan in China is not to come, take the money and run,”said Mr.Rosell to TV3, a Catalan broadcaster,. “It’s, first of all, to know what and how we can offer to them, making as many Barça supporters as possible. In the long term, our goal is to monetize from those supporters.”

Just like the way they behave in the transfer market, the Catalans are clear and patient about what they should do.

“We’re not going to get crazy about China, ”said Xavier Faus, the club’s vice president, when speaking about the broadcasting time in La Liga, as the team usually plays in the early morning around 3am in Beijing time. “We cannot, in order to gain 1m euro here, lose 5m in our own market.”

Barça plans to host its first summer camp next summer in Beijing, but they may not be able to offer remedy as the government intended for the demise of Chinese soccer.

“We’re not here to solve the Chinese problem,” confessed Laurent. “Many people told us the Chinese results are bad. I’m a French and French results are bad as well. Don’t worry, there’re cycles.”

Newly crowned champions. Could this be the beginning of a dynasty?

China Super League side Guangzhou Evergrande pulled off a feat that is very rare in football. The Guangdong Province based club have become the first team in China (probably Asia as well) to win the first division title after promotion from the second division. Looking back in football history German Bundesliga club FC Kaiserslautern seem to be the only other club to pull this off back in 1998.

Relegated to the second division last season after being implicated in a match-fixing scandal, the club received new investment from property firm, Evergrande Real Estate Group, which set out to bring the top Chinese players. Players such as Chinese internationals Gao Lin, Zheng Zhi and Sun Xiang followed the club down to the second division and became the catalyst in their quick return to the top division.

Dario Conca. High-profile buy for the club that could see a swell of other players join up in the future

Making it back to the top division the spending did not stop there. The club spent massive amounts of money on talent from abroad by signing Brazilian Cleo and then topped it off by signing Argentine Dario Conca from Brazilian side Fluminese.

While the amount of money the new league champions spent on these players pales in comparison to what European clubs like Chelsea, Manchester United, Real Madrid and AC Milan spend every summer, it does bring a lot of attention to those on the Asian continent. At a time when teams in Japan’s J-League, South Korea’s K-League and Middle Eastern clubs would most likely have the chance of signing top players, China is now emerging as a viable competitor.

This also brings up a question. Could Guangzhou become the first of a host of “super” clubs in the China Super League? With recent investments in the game by the Wanda Group and Evergrande, there is hope that the league as well as football in China, in general, will see some improvements.

So, where can these other “super clubs” come from? As the CITIC Group is the sponsor for former champions Beijing Guoan FC, there would be no problem for the capital club to make further investment to take the league crown from the southerners. Tianjin Teda, Shanghai Shenhua, and, possibly, Hangzhou Greentown could elevate themselves to that status if owners were willing to put more money into their clubs by signing top players and coaches.

There are risks, of course, when more money is invested in clubs and success is not achieved. This is one of the problems that has led to the downfall of many teams in Europe. Clubs such as Nottingham Forest, Leeds United and Sheffield Wednesday, EPL regulars in the past, fell on hard times by spending beyond their own means just to keep up with the bigger clubs. The CFA must make sure that spending does not get out of hand in the league.

Football in China could be starting to put past scandals behind themselves and some clubs seem to be offering an improved product on the pitch. However, there is still a long way to go. If there is continued investment in the game, then perhaps China could have its first club lift the Asian Champions League trophy in the near future.

Additional Articles

• Financial crisis: How football is affected by the credit crunch
• Money to burn
• Newly-crowned Chinese champions Guangzhou Evergrande are raising the bar in China & perhaps in Asia
• Newly crowned Chinese champions Guangzhou Evergrande setting sights on 2012 Asian Champions League

Photos

Wiki Media

LF World

Birmingham City FC owner Carson Yeung in happier times

Birmingham City FC may not be a well-known team for most people in China, but most should know the name Carson Yeung(楊家誠). The Hong Kong businessman has been in the headlines for the past few years as he attempted to purchase the Midlands club back in 2007 followed by his successful acquisition in 2009. The former barber became another name in the slew of foreigners who have bought into English football clubs. Now, Yeung is back in the news for reasons not dealing with football.

The executive director of Birmingham International Holdings is awaiting trail for alleged money laundering from 2001-2007. This is a very serious charge that Yeung has repeatedly denied through the media. If he is found guilty he could face up to more than a decade in prison.

Birmingham City's future is in the balance with Carson Yeung awaiting trial

With Yeung’s legal troubles now public, one of the big questions concerning the future of the English Championships side is whether it can survive while its chairman is holed up in Hong Kong. Reports have come out in the English media that the Carling Cup holders are now strapped for cash and may have to sell some of their top players in order to stay afloat. In addition, due the chairman’s arrest, all financial accounts have been frozen and the club’s stock market listing has been suspended until there is final verdict in his trial.

While Blues manager Chris Houghton is trying his best to keep players and supporters attention on football, it’s Yeung that still remains the center of attention in what could be a long drawn out legal case in the Hong Kong courts. Each day that he is talked about in the media it takes away from what the club is trying to do on the pitch as they try to return to the Premier League at the first crack and make a decent run in the Europa League.

With the club in disarray and uncertain as to what will happen with them in the future, the former Hong Kong Rangers chairman tried in vain to make a trip to England to allay the fears of the City faithful, only for a judge to reject his request.

So, now that Yeung in no way can reassure those remotely linked with the club about its stability, what can he do? Well, he can let junior have a major role in the club’s affairs.

Additional articles

• Carson Yeung’s legal troubles cast cloud over Birmingham City
• Carson Yeung: ‘I’ll bring China’s finest to Birmingham’
• Birmingham City Carson Yeung Your Shout special: The fans have their say

Photos

Poker Knave

Birmingham City Football Club

Uyghur soccer boys at an elementary school near Kashgar

At least two football tournaments were cancelled in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region following last month’s knife attacks and explosions in China’s far west.

The two tournaments, which are scheduled to take place in August and October in Urumqi and Artux, were called off by the local party committees due to security concerns.

The tournament in Urumqi invited teams from Kazakhstan,  Tajikistan, Kirghistan, Turkey and Russia to play against a local team and the organizers told us they may have to wait another year for these matches.

Maintaining stability has always been a top priority on the local authorities’ agenda  in Xinjiang, and this is certainly not the first time football matches are revoked there.

In his book The Uyghurs: Strangers in Their Own Land, Gardner Bovingdon, professor of Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University, noted what maybe the earliest football ban in Xinjiang since the Communist Revolution:

In 1994 a number of Uyghurs in Ghulja decided to revive a traditional social organization, the masrap, in order to combat endemic alcoholism and drug abuse in the region. The masrap met regularly, with memberships of several dozen, to share music and dance, learn more about Islam, and hold one another to account for their public behaviors. Leaders of the gatherings had both ritual and religious authority to punish participants in front of their peers for violating the group code. The groups were quite successful at reducing alcohol and drug use and also at giving Uyghurs a sense of collective capacity to help themselves. They multiplied quickly.” In spring of 1995 the heads of all the masrap in Ili gathered and elected as the leader of all the groups one of the founders of the movement, Abdulhelil. He was detained for questioning soon after, and following this the government banned masrap, although the organizations continued to operate underground. An anthropologist living in Ghulja during spring 1995 concluded that what the party most feared about the groups was that they were organizations that “it did not initiate, supervise, [or] control” (Dautcher 1999:326).42.

In July and August, Abdulhelil and other leaders organized a youth soccer league in Ghulja, and many youngsters joined. On August 12, several days before the tournament was to begin, military officials occupied the playing field, parked several tanks there, and announced that it would henceforth be needed for military exercises. Officials also reportedly removed the goalposts from the fields at all schools in the area to ensure that the tournament could not take place. On August 13 Abdulhelil was again taken in for questioning. The following day, hundreds of men marched peacefully through the streets and then dispersed, an event that officials later referred to as the “August 14 illegal march.” Remarkably, though there was no hint of violent intent in the march, by noon that day snipers stood conspicuously on the roofs of buildings in the center of town, and the People’s Armed Police (PAP) controlled the main intersections with barbed-wire barriers (Amnesty International 1999; Dautcher 1999:325-27; 2004:285-87; Roberts 1998a::686). Abdulhelil and others, angry at the government’s heavy-handed action to squelch a very successful social organization, went on to plan and lead the protest in 1997…

While traveling in Xinjiang this spring, we discovered oftentimes “security” has been cited by the local authorities as a reason not to host any kind of sports events, even when the situation is not tense. In fact, a local source told us this has been the hardest part of hosting any sports event there. They do have the fans, fund and stadiums, but all is not enough without a go-ahead from the local government.

This is cross-posted on Wild East Football.

From Xinkuaibao via Xinhua:

After the meeting, Sohn Hak-kyu gave a football autographed by Park Ji-Sung to Vice President Xi as a present.  As a football fan, Xi expressed that China’s World Cup qualification, hosting of the World Cup and winning the World Cup are his three wishes.

Previously:

•  Xi Jinping Wants Chinese Football to Go Top

Chinese football hit a new low on June 23 as the national U-23 squad were beaten 1-3 in Muscat by their Omanian peers and lost 1-4 on aggregate in 2012 London Olympic Games qualifiers. The defeat marks not only the most short-lived U-23 team in the history of Chinese football, but also could make Miroslav Blažević, the acclaimed Croat coach, the most short-serving national team manager since the Communist Revolution after only two competitive matches of coaching.

Chinese U-23 Team Lost in Muscat, Oman

Commentators, pundits and fans voiced their upset and anger on Chinese micro-blogging sites towards the Iranian Mohsen Torky and his linesmen, whose refereeing could be called into question on several occasions, most notably China’s goal called offside in the 93-minute. Miroslav Blažević reportedly called the referee a pickpocket when the team arrived back to their hotel. And almost as always, following Chinese teams’ defeats, the Chinese FA (CFA) was immediately criticized as corrupt and defunct.

With the likes of Nan Yong and Yang Yimin toppled in last year’s crackdown, the CFA formed its new leadership headed by Wei Di, former boss of China’s aquatic sports. Wei and his colleagues, as our ultimate Guo’an supporter B.Cheng noted in a post earlier, made a couple dubious calls leading up to U-23′s failure. But in the 18 months since Wei stepped in, he and his colleagues actually accomplished several things that should be given credit to.

The CFA’s recent accomplishments:

• Ending the ridiculous transfer policy that made players immovable up to 30 months (I’ll explain more about this in a separate post).
• Bringing back the reserve leagues – the attendance is not compulsory for all teams in the leagues as some clubs say they don’t have a budget for players’ traveling cost.
• Bringing back the FA Cup – a tournament seized to exist since 2006.
• Setting up National Youth Football Leagues (青少年足球联赛) -teams competing in this category are still mainly from pro clubs.
• Setting up School Football Test Cities (校园足球城市试点), a project initiated by a few politicians from the State Council, China’s cabinet, and jointly helped by the General Administration of Sport and the Ministry of Education. The CFA has a small office and a handful of people doing the fieldwork and, up until now, there’re  over 2,700 elementary and junior highs in 47 cities around the country signed aboard.

None of these works can offer short-term return to Chinese football, but all are positive for the development of the sport in the long run.  I’m especially amazed by the Test Cities project but if you really think about it, those kids in over 2,700 schools, an enormous players base, a new question emerged – how are you going to engage these boys 10 years from now?

The top priority on the FA’s agenda should be shedding their image as a bunch of officials who sit in their offices all day doing nothing but taking bribes and rigging matches. And if you have this image ingrained in people’s minds, I really don’t see many parents would consider football as a decent option for their kids. In fact, due to the former transfer policy and a lack of an independent players association, the welfare of Chinese footballers have been sandwiched by the FA and their employers all these years.

Take, for example, two Guangzhou Evergrande (广州恒大) players in the reverse team. The two blasted out their discontent about salaries on a micro-blogging site this May, and were fired the day after doing that. This, if put in perspective, is a dictating and irresponsible act from one of the weathest and most influential clubs in Chinese Super League. I wonder where could the two kids go and what other clubs might think after the incident. The FA offered no help to the two boys and didn’t say anything about the case. What they should do is let the players in the leagues feel they are valued and got their back given there is no players union.

The football population has been decreasing sharply all around China in the past decade. According to Shenzhen Evening News, there were 21 privately-run football academies that had 1,290 kids studying and over 70 football clubs with over 5,000 kids back in 2002 in Liaoning Province. The number of registered football academies this year is down to zero.

The hopes remains only if the FA conjures up a way of selecting the best talents from around the country. To achieve that, they need to a) establish a mechanism that can transfer new blood up through the ranks all the way from schools to pro clubs and b) let potential pro players feel that they have a future in this profession. Otherwise, we can expect Chinese football to tumble further.

Photo: Netease

The eternal rivalry comes to Beijing

Inter Milan’s 3-1 victory over Serie A counterpart Palermo has filled the final spot for the other participant in this summer’s Italian Super Cup, which will be returning to Beijing. This year’s curtain-raiser to the 2011/12 Serie A season is going to be a treat for Chinese supporters of Italian football as this season’s champion AC Milan will take on their eternal rivals for the first time on the Asian continent.

The Milan derby has always been one of the most highly charged and most anticipated matches on the Serie A schedule. The history between the two Italian giants reads like a movie with action, drama, comedy and suspense all rolled into one. If Halley’s Comet is only visible from earth every 75 years, then Chinese supporters will be in for a treat this summer for this is one of the rarest events to occur outside of Italy.

While football fans in China maybe foaming at the mouth to see their heroes such as Brazilian international Pato and midfield enforcer Gennaro Gattuso do battle against Dutch international Wesley Sneijder and Cameroonian international Samuel Eto’o, officials at the China Football Association and those with the task of organizing this event have to be very concerned about one thing: how to prevent the rampant scalping of tickets for this match.

Gattuso and Sneijder

When the final whistle blew in Rome, every ticket scalpers dream came true. There probably has not been this much excitement for a sporting event since the 2008 Olympic Games. Nearly three years ago, ticket scalping was at a fever pitch from the opening ceremony and selected events around Beijing.

Being one in the mass of people who went to see the United States in the men’s basketball competition at Wukesong, I was met by throngs of scalpers at the subway entrance just looking to sell me a ticket. Perhaps there were even a few who wanted to buy my ticket in order to sell it for a higher price later.

Now, ticket prices for the Italian Super Cup range from 200RMB up to 4,000RMB. According to the organizers over half of the tickets will be under 1,000RMB. It is needless to say that tickets for this once in a lifetime event will sell out, however, how much will scalpers be able to make off with after re-selling the tickets later? Also, have organizers come up with any measures to make sure that tickets are only being sold to those who want to see the two Italian giants clash?

Just this week a new policy was implemented which requires passengers on China’s high speed trains to show identification in order to purchase a ticket. The objective is to prevent ticket scalping, which has been a serious problem for the railway system, especially during the Spring Festival period when hordes of people make their long treks back home.

Perhaps this could work for major sporting events that come to China. You get the true football fans in the stadium on match day with a ticket with their name on it. Anyone else holding the ticket with hopes of entering gets questioned. It also prevents the scalper from re-selling the ticket for higher than its face value.

However, this could also be a turn off for some people as going through the process of showing their identification to buy a ticket could be an inconvenience. Also, the ticket could be deemed worthless if they are not able to go to the match in the end. Would they be able to refund the ticket?

Organizers can expect to make a profit from this year’s cup tie between AC Milan and Inter. However, if there are no measures taken to prevent ticket scalping, the true winners will be the scalpers themselves.

Lu You, sports journalist with CCTV

It’s my third time meeting Lu You this Monday at the gate of Beijing Second Intermediate People’s Court.  The result of her second trial against Huang Jianxiang, her former colleague at CCTV, a football commentator, was to be announced that day.  As the last two meetings with her, she seemed upbeat and spirited, like on the screen as a sports reporter.

The Lu You v. Huang Jianxiang case began with a piece Huang wrote on his Sina blog in June, 2008, which titled “Let’s say the ugly things up front.” In the blog post, Huang critised Ratomir Dujković, then headcoach of China’s national football team, ahead of a South Africa World Cup qualifier match with Qatar. Below are our translation of two paragraphs of the article.

You can play around as you wish, but better play it well and qualify. Otherwise, don’t blame me for settling a score with you afterwards. Even a god-like figure, your predecessor was bombarded by fans and media after conceding nine goals in the World Cup (refering to Bora Milutinović at the 2002 World Cup), let alone you didn’t make it outside of Asia. I didn’t say anything after China’s World Cup lost before, because there were so many people targeting him. Of course there’re people who tried to stir things up or follow others blindly, and also people who wanted to take vengeance for giving exclusive interivews to “zero distance”(refering to another female journalist). But I won’t be polite to you this time. I’m now self-employed and don’t need to represent the will of the leaders in my work unit or organ, and can fully enjoy the freedom of speech of Chinese football.

To be honest, you are far worse than your predecessor. He at least gave “zero distance” a good result, by not only [let her] enjoy wealth and rank and, until now, let her be an agent of any of his business cooperations in China. He did what was humanly possible and acted manly. What about you? [You] caused her an extra-uterine pregnancy and a scandal in the work unit, and you’re now faint-hearted. She was ousted as the top reporter who follows the national team and lost it all, making many fans wonder and miss her beautiful figure in the reporting of the national team. From this point alone, you’re far worse than your predecessor, are you?

At the time, most fans who closely followed the national team news knew who Huang was referring to in his article. Though Huang later deleted the  “extra-uterine pregnancy” part, it’s already too late for Lu. Hundreds if not thousands of netizens started leaving comments on Lu You’s blog, some of them using false language, describing her as a “bitch” or “stupid cunt,” some voiced their support of her, others considered both Lu You and Huang Jianxiang reaped “fame and attention” from the incident.

Later that year, Lu filed the case against Huang for defamation, because she thought she’s the person Huang mentioned in his blog post. She told press that her ultimate regret was that the case was not being heard in public. She lost the first trial on May 8, 2009 and appealed for a second trial on May 25, 2009. The second trial was started on Nov.20, 2009 and for some odd reason it protracted for over a year until now.

“It’s definitely not normal if a case’s been protracted for this long,” said Pu Zhiqiang, Lu’s main lawyer. “Legally speaking, judicial interpretation and General Principals of the Civil Law made it fairly clear about this situation, that if a third person presumes the person Huang mentioned was Lu You and caused a damage to her reputation, we can make sure that it’s this specific person [Huang referred to]. Other than this, we need to look at whether Huang’s words are based with evidence. He needs to prove that he wrote them unintentionally, which Huang failed to do.”

According to Mr.Pu, the key to this case is a contract between Huang Jianxiang and Sina, that Sina takes care of promoting Huang’s blog and Huang is responsible for writing eye-catching articles to attract more visitors to the site.

“During the first trial, Lu’s lawyer asked Chaoyang court for retriving the contract from Sina. But Sina said it cannot be provided because it involves commercial secrets,” said Pu. “Isn’t it contempt of court? The contract is held by both Huang and Sina. The court should order Huang to bring it out if Sina fails. If Huang declines, we should deduce the contract works to his disadvantage.”

“But the situation we encountered is the court considered it’s meaningless to look at the contract. They think the reputation dispute has nothing to do with Huang and Sina’s contract,” Pu Zhiqiang disclosed. “I think this [contract] has significant importance in deciding whether Huang [intentionally] damaged Lu’s reputation. I want to raise Lu’s case to the height of the New York Times Co. v. Sullivan case. I can prove the defendant’s actual malice in the case. But Chinese laws has no stipulation about the relations between public figures and actual malice.”

“This case is very helpful in standardizing citizens’ lives and behaviors in the Internet age. But the first trial verdict means that you can say anything about anyone without mentioning the person’s name. The whole world thinks [the person Huang mentioned] is Lu You and the court told her ‘you can’t prove it’s you.’ Isn’t this absurd?”

“Both Lu You and Huang Jianxiang are public figures. You can’t deny this person is not a public figure if he or she’s less known than another person. Lu You actually holds public resources when she covers Chinese football for CCTV. So it is reasonable if others think she has special channels to acquire information than other reporters. The key is people should say things based on their own judgements. If a contact for boosting your click-rate comes before, it’s way out of line.”

Outside the court, Lu You had a smile on her face and stamped on her feet against the cold.

“I think a win is not enough for feeling happy and a lost not enough for feeling sad,” said Lu. “This society, law and people’s understanding to things all need to improve. The important thing is I’m a journalist and doing a meaningful judicial practice.”

“If I lose then let it be. Countries will keep submitting bids to host the World Cup even if they failed before. Even China has tried two times to be granted the opportunity to host the Olympics. Think about the “black whistle” England experienced in the South Africa World Cup (In China, “black whistle” refers to a referee who intentionally makes wrong judgements after taking bribes). It’s definitely unfair. But will them choose not to participate in the next World Cup?”

The court dismissed Lu You’s claim of defamation, considering the person Huang mentioned in his blog post was not her. But weirdly, the court verdict criticized Huang for his “misconduct,” an act that was described as “nonsensical” by lawyer Pu.

Lu You was calm during the process and smiled when the judge read the decision.

“I nerver read other verdict and it’s the first time that I know that the law can criticize someone,” said Lu. “But I think citizens do not hope it can only criticize people, but to be able to punish them. Laws are the bottom line of a society and if it fails to promote good and punish evil, I don’t really need to file the case.”

Lawyer Pu lit up a smoke outside the courtroom when Lu You said these words. He finished the cigarette, paced slowly into the room after Lu finished and told us “it’s good they let us use this room.”

“I first want to thank the judge Liu Haidong. He did everything he can about this case,” said Pu. “He made it clear that the court ruling is decided by collegiate panel and, more important, by ‘leaders’. We often say our country’s freedom of speech and press is limited. Huang Jianxiang can, in an age when freedom of speech is striding backwards,  wins outrageously in this case. I think it says he has something that excels. But this something does not benefit the rule of law of a civil society. We’re lost, but only temporarily. We will turn things over one day. So Huang Jianxiang will be Lu You’s defendent for life. This is also a case lawyer Fu Minrong (the other lawyer representing Lu You) and I will reverse for the rest of our lives.”

Lu You drove me back to Pu’s law firm where we first met each other last year, when my colleague and I bumped into her in an interview with Pu Zhiqiang for an anniversary story.

In the car, Lu was no longer restraint and turned very emotional at some point. She told me female reporters in the “sports circle” are a “rare breed” and often prejudiced. Before the South Arica World Cup, she was invited for an interview with QQ, Tencent’s news portal site. During the interview, Lu recalled, the Tencent journalist asked her if she would bring condom for the trip. And for a minute she didn’t know how to react.

“So in the end I told him that I won’t bring ‘that thing,’ as I think the interview woudn’t be presentable if answering it directly,” said Lu.

But QQ Sports made a splashy headline out of her answer anyway, which titled “South Africa Reporting Safe, I Don’t Have Condoms in My Pocket: Lu You.”

A few days before the court ruling was announced, lawyer Pu Zhiqiang posted a message on his micro-blog that read: “Lu You did experienced an extra-uterine pregnancy, but it’s unfortunate privacy only between her and her boyfriend and had nothing to do with Ratomir Dujković. In order to become more popular and make money, Huang Jianxing violated a female colleague’s privacy and fabricated a sex scandal out of her and Ratomir Dujković. Huang’s words and deeds constituted defamation according to the law.”

Lawyer Pu said they’ll appeal the court ruling to Beijing People’s High Court soon.

Update Dec.28: If you speak Chinese, go here to check a video interview Lu You, Pu Zhiqiang and Professor Xu Xun from China University of Political Science and Law, did with People’s Daily Online today.

Related:

ESWN: Female Sports Reporter Files Libel Case

Photo: ESPN Star

During the 30 minutes interval at Shenyang Tiexi Stadium, supporters of Liaoning and Beijing Guo’an found out they didn’t really like each other, and had a fight after the match.

Second, according to Yangtze Evening News, a Nanjing paper, penis size is now a barometer in selecting young players at Tianjin Locomotive Football Club. Looking at a boy’s penis size and shape can give you an idea of his hormone level, revealed a senior staffer of the club. Boys with short, thick genitals and tight scrotum are good for football playing. 囧