John Yan: From Three Stripes to Swoosh 装备赞助,中国足球冲出亚洲

The public attention for Team China’s trip to Australia this January has been very high, even though the topics mostly are not related to the potential achievements of this team in 2015 Asian Cup. Alain Perrin, the French head coach of Team China, selected a reasonably young team, with an average age of 24.5 years old, and laid off quite a few settled international players. However, the stories were all about other issues, like a funny Now We Start departure ceremony held on the sports channel of CCTV,

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Football restarts in Liberia as Ebola infection rates fall

Musa Bility

By Mark Baber
January 8 – As the numbers of new Ebola patients falls off dramatically in Liberia, with just eight new infections reported in 29 December to January 4 reporting period, the Liberian Football Federation has announced the resumption of competitive matches “with immediate effect,” marking a major milestone in the impoverished country’s struggle against the deadly disease which has killed at least 3,471 people in Liberia.

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Matt Scott: Five key events for 2015

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“It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look farther than you can see.” Winston Churchill

Last week this column took a look back over what it had predicted for 2014 to see how they had fared in reality. Now, for the first column of 2015, and as one of history’s great men once said, it seems wise to look ahead, at least as far as we can see.

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Ticket sell out for the Cup game that never was

Accrington Stanley

January 7 – The tickets were quickly snapped up but the game never took place. When tiny Accrington Stanley, dubbed in England as the club that would never die after being saved from extinction, had a chance to play mighty Manchester United in the third round of the FA Cup, tickets sold out in 36 hours.

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Ghana positive ahead of AFCON 2015 as GN Bank adds to sponsorship roster

Ghana fans

By Mark Baber
January 7 – Ahead of the African Cup of Nations a sense of optimism prevails in Ghana as Ghana National Bank (GN Bank) confirms a new sponsorship deal with the Ghana Football Association, national team manager Avram Grant professes satisfaction with the squad’s preparations and the players insist rows over bonus payments are in the past, with the team “willing to die” for the cause.

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