Shanghai SIPG win China league title

Shanghai SIPG broke Guangzhou Evergrande’s near-decade stranglehold on Chinese football yesterday, winning the Chinese Super League for the first time. Fabio Cannavaro’s failure to steer Evergrande to an eighth CSL crown in a row will see the Italian legend’s future as manager thrown into doubt after a single campaign at the helm. In contrast, SIPG counterpart Vitor Pereira has achieved what his more famous predecessor Andre Villas-Boas could not, winning the club’s first major trophy since its founding in 2005. SIPG, who have the expensive Brazilian duo of Oscar and Hulk, wrapped up the title with a game to spare thanks to a 2-1 victory over Beijing Renhe.