China spent billions on enhancing its place in the world game. But can you buy a World Cup? And what’s it actually like to play there? LUCAS RADBOURNE-PUGH spoke to Aussies who know...
The air inside the Beijing Worker’s Stadium was so thick with sweat and cigarette smoke that many older men, having never seen a crowd this size, found it difficult to breathe. 60,000 screaming fans had packed into the ageing arena – that during the 1950s was used for mass executions – to watch a football match.
It was 2012, Beijing Guoan had a Portugese European Cup winner at the helm, and for a football-obsessed Chinese audience, this was the dawn of a new era.
The sleeping dragon had awoken. Five years and almost a billion dollars later,…
