From Times Online:
Millions of Chinese football fans turning on their computers this morning will discover that the welcoming face of Chelsea has a rather glum look. Ashley Cole was selected to send a greeting to fans on the club’s new Chinese language website, but his stern countenance was in stark contrast to the wide smile displayed by Peter Kenyon, the club’s chief executive, as he surveyed a golden future in the world’s biggest marketplace.
Kenyon was in Beijing yesterday to sign a deal that will put Chelsea on the biggest website in China and give tens of millions the chance to learn all about Cole, Frank Lampard and the rest of the stars at Stamford Bridge. The new website is one of the first tentative steps Chelsea are taking on the long march to world domination.
Within seven years, Kenyon wants the name of Chelsea to be first on the lips of fans when they think of football ” even if they speak Mandarin. To dominate the world, though, Chelsea will need to become the most popular football club in a nation where the potential audience is measured in hundreds of millions.