Asia has become the driving force behind the world's most popular and lucrative national football league, despite being many thousands of miles and several time zones away from much of the actual action.
That has been underlined across the region in recent weeks as clubs from England have ventured east on pre-season marketing and PR assignments to play a few matches here ahead of their new season. English football is big business in Asia.
Nearly 40,000 soccer fans witnessed Liverpool’s 2-1 win over Leicester City in the final of the Premier League Asia Trophy in Hong Kong last Saturday. Before that the city's average match...