A sporting revolution as China fast becoming a global football powerhouse

The most significant football event of the year may have been a meeting in Shanghai last week.

The photographers picked up on José Mourinho signing shirts (still blue ones, for the time being) but that was just a sideshow. The occasion was the launch of a Chinese venture by Gestifute, the sports business headed by Mourinho’s agent, Jorge Mendes, in a partnership with Foyo, the “culture and entertainment subsidiary” of Fosun International.

Fosun is one of those big investment conglomerates that most of us have never heard of but which has a stake in everything. A German bank, an American insurance company, steel, pharmaceuticals, Thomas Cook and Club Med – and now football.