If you believe what you read in the newspapers then you could be forgiven for thinking that China is the next big footballing powerhouse. China has a population of 1.3 billion and its President Xi Jinping announced his plan to make China the leading force in world football by 2050 and win a World Cup in 15 years. Massive investments have begun in the grassroots infrastructure with plans to lay one football pitch for every 10,000 citizens around the continent. This year marks yet another reincarnation for the Chinese Super League. Having been tarnished with bribery and corruption which culminated in the match fixing scandal of 2013 with the Chinese Football association banning many players, referees and other officials linked with the game. This increasingly showcase league now has live coverage on BskyB in an effort to raise its profile.

However when one thinks of footballing nations outside Europe, the South American giants of Brazil and Argentina immediately come to mind. Moving continents, the African Nations teams of Ghana, Egypt, Morocco, Cameroon and the Ivory Coast will probably be familiar due to the influence of stars like Ayew, Elneny, Chamakh and Touré just to name a few. How many current Chinese players can you name? Well there aren't any. Where is China in the FIFA world rankings? China currently lie 86th in the rankings and failed to qualify for Russian 2018 having finished bottom of their FIFA World Cup qualifying group A. The hype reached new levels with Wayne Rooney having considered a possible move to the Chinese Super League for an eye watering offer of £75 million over 3 years or £1 million a week. Other high profile players who have bitten the bait include Oscar and Obi-Mikel of Chelsea, the Belgian Axel Witsel has also received a contract to join the likes of Hulk and Carlos Tevez and Africans too numerous to mention.

The transfer window then closed having spent £325 million on players, yet almost overnight the bubble burst when the ruling authorities announced that the number of foreign talents that could be named in match day squads would be reduced from five to three. This means a lot of rotation and bench warming by these expensive imports. In short this is yet another attempt to increase the spirit of nationalism and world popularity by totalitarian regimes. Russia still has the FIFA World Cup despite its alleged bribery of FIFA, its fans are known to practice hooliganism and attacked English fans during Euro 2016. Recently the farce reached new levels with a Russian MP Igor Lebedev proposing legalising hooliganism and making it a spectator sport. It shows that if you have money and marketing resources, you could make any numpty into a celebrity.

The Chinese Super League season runs from March to November and 16 teams contest 30 matches. The league has been won by Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao F.C. every season since 2011. The club is 60% owned by the second largest property developer in China and 40% by the online Asian giant Alibaba. Despite the cosmetic separation of the CFA from the Chinese government and the instruction that all schools are "voluntarily obliged" to introduce football onto the curriculum, should the project lead to increased awareness by ordinary people in China of the outside world, then I believe that the grip on information control will be tightened and more restrictions will swiftly be introduced.

What about Arsenal's links with China? Arsenal first played a pre-season friendly in Beijing in 1995. In 2003 the club launched its supporters club in China. Arsenal followed this up by tours in 2011 and 2012 and has recently announced as part of the 2017 pre season tour, a match against Bayern Munich on July 19th in Shanghai and versus Chelsea on July 22nd in Beijing. Arsenal have introduced soccer schools with iRENA following a visit in 2015 by Charles Allen and Robert Pires, and the rising popularity of the club has seen it rise to third in social media rankings behind Manchester United and Barcelona. The club announced a content partnership with Total Soccer in 2016 and will provide exclusive player interviews and videos. It seems that Ivan Gazidis remains totally committed to increasing commercial revenues by this ever closer union with China, and with Brexit looming, this strategy could reap even more profits. Perhaps even Arsène Wenger could relaunch his career in China having done that in Japan with Grampus Eight. LOL.

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(Ed’s note – Further to yesterday’s piece with news of when and where to gather pre-match on Sunday, we’ve been asked by the Arsenal Protest Group to mention a new petition that has been started if you wish to let the Arsenal board know that you do not want to see Arsene Wenger awarded another contract. Sign here if you wish to see something different at Arsenal next season.)