Last week on a Chinese sports website, the Chinese national soccer team expressed unhappiness with the facilities offered by two-time defending Premier League Champion Chelsea. China’s Olympic soccer team is in London for two weeks where they will train and play three exhibition games against English teams in preparation for the Olympics in Beijing. The daily Titan sports site quoted one Chinese player as saying, “Chelsea is not as good as we thought.” Well considering China lost 1-0 Monday to Chelsea’s reserves, maybe they are as good as you thought. But it turned out the Chinese players were not addressing Chelsea’s skill level, but rather, how their pitch was just a bit soggier and suckier than the Chinese had envisioned. Another Chinese player told the Titan, “The situation is that the food and lodging is good, but the training field is not so good.” On Monday however, the Chinese team denied saying any of this to the Chinese media. Does it sound like something they would say? The food is good in London? Nobody likes that shit. Monday, Chelsea issued a statement on behalf of the Chinese team saying, “We have been training in Cobham for almost one week and we are so impressed by the great pitches and facilities provided to us in Cobham training center.” Sounds a little fishy. Also, according to the AP, the Chinese team was not allowed to shower at their training facility because the locker rooms were used by women and students. What it sounds like is that the Brits were treating the Chinese team like shit, the Chinese opened their mouths to the media about it and then were ordered to recant all they had said. Not such good PR for Chelsea who recently launched a Chinese-language website and plans on expanding its brand throughout the mainland. At the end of the day though, it’s just soccer. Who really likes this sport anyway?

•AP: China Denies It’s Unhappy at Chelsea

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