Playing the Supercoppa Italiana or Coppa Italia final in China are to be among the proposals discussed when a delegation linked to the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with the Italian Football Federation today.
The meeting with China Media Group head Shen Haixiong is also to focus on TV content, collaboration over developing young Chinese players in Italy and instruction for using the video assistant referee.
The federation hopes to play games in China within the next three years, according to a meeting agenda seen by reporters on Friday, although it said that moving Serie A games to China is not up for consideration.
There could also be friendly matches between national teams and courses for Chinese coaches.
There are already strong soccer ties between the nations, with former Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro succeeding former Italy coach Marcello Lippi as coach of China.
Cannavaro’s first game was a 1-0 loss to Thailand in the opening match of the four-nation China Cup on Thursday.
The Supercoppa Italiana — which pits the Serie A champion against the Coppa Italia champion — has already been played in China four times over the past 10 years.
This year’s Supercoppa Italiana was played in Saudi Arabia as part of a deal with Saudi Arabia’s General Sports Authority that calls for two more of the matches over the next four years to be played in the Gulf country.
Zhang Jindong, owner of Suning and Inter, accompanied Xi during his visit to Italy and took advantage of the opportunity to meet with Inter’s Italian managers while in Rome.
On Thursday, Inter announced a pre-season tour of Asia, which could include up to two matches in China, plus one in Singapore.
SWEEP THE LEG: Poirier, determined to best McGregor, after losing to him in 2014, used low calf kicks to throw ‘Notorious’ off his stand-up game, before dropping him American underdog Dustin Poirier yesterday shook up the world of mixed martial arts, beating up the legs of Irish superstar Conor McGregor before knocking him out at UFC 257 in Abu Dhabi. “I’m happy, but I’m not surprised. I put in the work,” Poirier said, after the referee stepped in after 2 minutes, 32 seconds of the second round to save McGregor from further damage, after he was dropped by a fierce combination of punches. The 32-year-old Poirier was ranked second in the flyweight division going into the fight, but still rated a heavy underdog by bookmakers to beat his fourth-ranked opponent,
Badminton’s world No. 1 Tai Tzu-ying yesterday was handed a tough draw at Thailand’s World Tour Finals, as she was bracketed with home favorite Ratchanok Intanon and Indian star P.V. Sindhu. Tai, former world champion Ratchanok and Olympic silver-medalist Sindhu were grouped with Thailand’s Pornpawee Chochuwong in Group B for the round-robin stage of the biosecure tournament in Bangkok. Tai faces Sindhu today. The delayed season finale from last year is the third behind-closed-doors event in three weeks in the Thai capital as badminton resumes after months of near-inactivity amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Spanish top seed Carolina Marin, seeking a hat-trick of wins in Bangkok,
HOLDING STEADY: Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying pushed past Indonesia’s Gregoria Mariska Tunjung to advance to a quarter-finals match against world No. 10 Michelle Li Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen and Wang Tzu-wei yesterday defeated their respective opponents in the second round of the Toyota Thailand Open, setting them up to face each other today in the quarter-finals. In an early match, world No. 12 Wang took 45 minutes to defeat Hong Kong’s Angus Ng Ka-long 21-13, 21-11. Last week, the world No. 8 ousted Wang from the Yonex tournament before defeating Chou in the semi-finals. Chou, world No. 2, defeated France’s Brice Leverdez in 48 minutes 21-19, 21-16. In other men’s singles matches, Indonesia’s fifth seed Anthony Ginting suffered an unexpected defeat to Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk-yiu, who moved into
MARIN REMATCH: Tai Tzu-ying saved six game points in her semi-final against Ratchanok Intanon, who went into the match with a superior head-to-head record Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying reached the final of badminton’s Thailand Open yesterday with a three-set win over Ratchanok Intanon, setting up a rematch against Carolina Marin. Tai won 12-21, 21-12, 23-21 in 59 minutes to set up her second final against Marin in two weeks, while Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin advanced to the final in the men’s doubles. However, Chou Tien-chen was eliminated in the semi-finals of the men’s singles. Tai saved six game points in the win against her Thai opponent Intanon, who went into the match with a superior head-to-head record against the Taiwanese world No. 1. Tai’s best streak was a
RSS