Talking Balls: Pork, Porking and Porkies
Sex scandal alert! Well, not really as it might be old news but one of the following links might not be suitable for work. Anyway, car model and blue (or yellow) movie star, Shou Shou is dating Team China basketball star Zhang Bo. Here are the pictures from Beijing Airport.
Judo star Tong Wen has been banned from competition for failing a drugs test. The reason that her coach has given for testing positive for Clenbuterol is "She trained in Europe and was sick of the food so we gave her a lot of pork chops when she came home." Sounds entirely plausible to me when you consider China's top backstroke swimmer Ouyang Kunpeng ‘s pre-Olympics life ban. He claimed that he had eaten too much barbecued roast pork with pals before the test.
Now to football, Beijing Guoan play Suwon Samsung Bluewings in the AFC Champions’ League tonight. They have an added incentive to the tune of RMB 3,000,000 in win bonus to split between the team. Catch the game on BTV-6 or CCTV-5 from 6.30pm (in about half an hour).
Former China captain Li Weifeng plays for Suwon Samsung Bluewings but he’s lost some of the respect of his countrymen. An unnamed Guoan player is quoted thus:” His niubi years have gone, who would've known what he's up to if it wasn't the media keep mentioning him?" This could spice up tonight’s game as Li looks to exact retribution.
The Socceroos have announced their World Cup squad and Joel Griffiths has not made it. Bad luck. At least he can catch the games as the CSL is taking a break in June for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Why would they do that when China is not involved? Apparently so the players can learn from watching on TV.
Someone who has learned his lesson this week is Guoan full-back Maurice Ross. He was involved in an incident in Sanlitun where a Cadillac door was given a trademark kick. The police intervened and Ross was shaken down by the Cadillac owner for RMB 30,000. Dang. Good news for Ross is that he has gained a lot of support from netizens. More on Sanlitun-Cadillacgate here and here.
Kenneth Huang’s people denied that he was trying to buy Premier League failures Liverpool but that’s not put off Shanghai Shenhua boss Zhu Jun. According to The Independent he’s in talks regarding a possible takeover. More here.
Finally, Beijing Guoan asked the CSL to postpone their August 8 league clash with Shenzhen. The CSL’s response was “it’s not that easy.” Don’t hold your breath for the Catalan club just yet.
