The East Stand | Let Liverpool become Premier League champions in China while coronavirus chaos grips England
- Europe’s top five divisions could do worse than moving operations to China as Covid-19 spreads worldwide
- TV and China – which is where football has been heading for years, anyway – would be the big winners
Football fans have long memories and that is no different on the mainland.
For the China national team, the “May 19 Incident” still looms large, when lowly Hong Kong beat “Big Brother” in their own backyard. The visitors’ shock 2-1 win on that day in 1985 stopped China from making it to the Mexico ’86 Fifa World Cup.
Fast forward almost 20 years and another loss in the Workers’ Stadium in Beijing lives on in football’s collective memory. In the final of the 2004 AFC Asian Cup on August 7, the hosts faced Japan in a game that was coloured as much by history as football. A comprehensive 3-1 defeat was enough to cause fans to riot outside the ground.
There were no riots seven years on when the Italian Super Cup came to the National Stadium, although there was minor displeasure from some Chinese AC Milan fans despite having watched their team beat city rivals Inter thanks to comeback goals from Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Jerome Boateng.
It was a hot and humid August night and some AC Milan fans had chosen to attend a party at a Beijing hotel, with each of them paying 100 yuan (US$14 to attend). For that they got just cola and some edamame, and after complaints on social media came a new nickname.
