Silent Lonesome Man

A few months ago, three months for precise, China hosted the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, under strict lockdown, despite concerns over China's unwavering commitment to zero-COVID. This temporarily eased worries about China's abilities to host a much smaller, yet equally important, Asian Games in late 2022 in the city of Hangzhou. At least. But China brought a shock wave to Asian football when the country officially relinquished its rights to host the 2023 AFC Asian Cup on 14 May, citing COVID-19 pandemic is ravaging the nation. This could not come in such a moment like this, given Xi Jinping has continued to commit with zero-COVID strategy and suppressed any dissent at home; thus China has been crippled of a major sporting event, though it was scheduled in summer next year. This has doubled further troubles when the attempted 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou has also been delayed as well - potentially moved to 2023 or could be even cancelled. And that is not impossible. In the...

Sweden has been historically recognised as one of the world's best men's football teams, and frequently appear in the major international arena, be it FIFA World Cup or UEFA European Championship. Leave alone a Swedish player trained in Sweden would also receive highly by other European counterparts. So no doubt, Swedish players are viewed with gold. For a country with only more than 10 million people, this achievement is beyond expectation. Who else forget 1958 World Cup when Sweden as hosts almost occupied their first World Cup trophy had not for Pelé's brilliance shone against? And who forget Sweden almost knocked out Germany in the 1992 Euro also on Swedish soil? Sweden's competitiveness has made football more entertaining and contributed to Europe's rich sporting tradition. But today, so many Swedish players are flooding Russia. Why? Well, it'd be a bitter case. This has something to do with the Euro 2008. UEFA Euro 2008 was hosted in two countries: Austria...

The moment Roman Abramovich, a rising Russian billionaire, took over the English club Chelsea F.C. in 2003, the small club suddenly emerged to become a superpower in English football and later Europe. And the Russian owner remains loved by the fans of the London Blue. But few people truly realise that Abramovich is a very close ally of the autocratic leader of Russia, Vladimir Putin. When I'm saying "few people", I mean, they have no clear insight about how deep Abramovich and Putin connected. In fact, despite Putin may not always have great relations with various oligarchs, Abramovich, among a handful of henchmen, are never touched by Putin, if not saying the Russian dictator has tolerated Abramovich as a reward. Putin never questions Abramovich, and Abramovich transfers money back to Russia freely. Abramovich's model is being copied by other Russian billionaires, and the number is increasing. Russian government has been successfully diversifying its assets from oil ...