Newcastle Jets are demanding that the AUD 1 million fee agreed for the loan of Joel Griffiths be paid in full before Nov 30 otherwise the player will return to Australia. According to Jets owner Con Constantine, Beijing have reneged on their part of the deal. Watch this space.

Another space worth watching is Tianjin, where the Tianjin Daily reports that sacked Guoan coach Lee Jang-Soo is close to signing for Beijing’s biggest rivals. Lee poured cold water on the rumours by claiming that he has no interpreter with him so wasn’t discussing contracts.

Gambling has gone from under the radar to under the microscope. The gambling crackdown is getting serious. Players and club managers are getting arrested. The biggest so far being Wang Po, former boss of Shaanxi Guoli (now known as Shaanxi Chanba). Shaanxi’s former Brazilian coach, the 62-year old Carlos de Oliveira said in an interview with Sohu.com that “Wang Po is a devil, I really should’ve thrown a party when I heard the news that he’s arrested. He claimed he has guanxi to make my family disappear, he took away my interpreter and decided the line-up himself, although I didn’t speak Chinese, but I can tell the line-up he put up was not for winning. He threatened to ‘make my family disappear’, but I was a fighter and would never surrender to that kind of threat, though I know he probably did have the power to do that. I didn’t want my family to get hurt, that was exactly why I resigned from Shaanxi.”

Carson Yeung, the new owner of Birmingham City, has told Sina.com that he will purchase one or two Chinese players. He says “Even if they are not good enough to make the starting eleven it will still be good for Chinese football just to have them at the club.” Yeung has already employed former China captain Fan Zhiyi, and subsequently sent him back to China to scout for stars. Apparently Fan has earmarked Hao Junmin of Tianjin Teda and Jiang Ning of Qingdao Jonoon as the players who might make the grade in the UK. Yeung has also promised to spend over 30 million pounds on new talent. The problem? It’ll be “someone of his (Andriy Shevchenko) level,” bad luck Blues fans.

Someone who does not own a sports club is Yao Ming. Despite earlier reports to the contrary, it’s been established that Yao does not own the Shanghai Sharks outright.

Former China captain Li Weifeng won the South Korean FA Cup with Suwon Samsung Bluewings. This is good for Li, and for South Korea if his notorious temper is anything like it was here in China – Li was the player whose suspension led to the end of Wuhan as a football team.

Sun Mingming, all seven-feet-nine-inches of him, has signed a three-year contract at the Beijing Ducks. Sidney Moncrief, the coach for the new season, said Sun “is a bit slow but he’s helpful on rebounds.” Sun is known worldwide for being taller than Yao, appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live, a Discovery Channel documentary and for beating up Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker in Rush Hour 3.

Finally, Zheng Zhi fans can find the likeminded at Beijing’s Celtic Supporters Club. Celtic fans might well like it too. More on this soon.