Arsenal’s decision to distance the club from midfielder Mesut Ozil’s criticism of China’s policy towards its Muslim Uighur minority won’t surprise anyone familiar with the scramble by Europe’s soccer powers for a slice of the expanding Chinese market. China is now the English Premier League’s most lucrative overseas market, with the country paying 564 million pounds for a three-year TV rights deal, while Italy, Spain and Germany have also pocketed big deals. Wolverhampton Wanderers are fully Chinese-owned, while the owners of English champions Manchester City sold around 13 percent of…
Read MoreClubs unlikely to bite the Chinese hand that feeds
