<b>Great ball of China:</b> How football is no longer on the sidelines

The exorbitant riches of Chinese football are making the world sit up and take notice

With great power comes the instinct to hoard. China loves to claim ownership of land masses in foreign countries, international water bodies, and, perhaps a little more deservingly, to a series of inventions that have moulded so fastidiously the world we live in today: the compass, gunpowder, printing, tea, toilet paper — and football.

The story goes that during the Song dynasty (960 to 1279 AD), the Chinese played a leisurely game called “kickball”, or cuju, which mainly required players to keep the ball air-bound with no use of hands allowed. Cuju also finds a mention in John Woo’s 2008