ICC China hoping to avoid repeat of last year’s fiascoasco

For the third year in a row, the International Champions Cup ( ICC) will have a China component, with Italian giants Inter and AC Milan, German clubs Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich and England’s Arsenal set to line up for four games in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Nanjing in July. Significantly, Beijing is not listed on this year’s schedule, and after the debacle last summer of the Manchester derby that never was, it’s not hard to see why.

Billed as the renewal of hostilities between Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola, the game was abandoned just hours before kickoff under the pretext of heavy rain. But the Bird’s Nest pitch had already been in such bad shape that City had sent over one of their leading groundsman nearly two weeks earlier. All Mourinho and Guardiola could talk about in the build- up was the poor state of the pitch and the importance of avoiding injuries, so it was almost a blessing when the plug was pulled.

United and City each got a match against Dortmund in Shanghai and Shenzhen, respectively, but the lasting memory was still the Beijing debacle.

Credit the organizers, then, for learning from that lesson, even if the Manchester rivals will likely head to the US this summer instead.

In fact, Chelsea and Arsenal are due to play on the ill- fated Bird’s Nest turf on July 22, though that game takes place outside the confines of the ICC tournament.

Arsenal, incidentally, will be making their debut in China in a game that many Arsenal fans hope might see a winning debut for someone other than Arsene Wenger. But with AC Milan playing three games in the Cup versus two for Bayern and one each for Arsenal, Dortmund and Inter, the notion of crowning a “champion” is rather nonsensical.

Perhaps the most interesting lineup of the tournament is the 291st Milan derby in Nanjing on July 24, marking the first time that Inter will play on Chinese soil since being acquired by the Nanjing- based Suning Group.

AC Milan’s own proposed Chinese takeover has been delayed so many times that it now seems to be merely a figment of owner Silvio Berlusconi’s imagination, though it is still possible that this derby could be an all- Chinese affair.

But let’s hope that the pitch at the Nanjing Olympic Sports Center holds up better than its equivalent in the capital; otherwise Europe’s top teams might stay away from China for good.