Ask a Shanghai cabbie to name the members of his country's cabinet and he will have trouble. But ask for the strikers of Manchester United or Barcelona and the names come tripping off the tongue.
One reason is his love of watching these football teams play and another is the fact that he bets on them every week.
Betting on football in Shanghai is big business, although it is illegal. Groups of friends regularly wager small amounts in bars and restaurants. For the big players, though, it is done through companies in Macau via the internet.
'Ordinary people bet 100-500 yuan and the rich, thousands or tens of thousands,' said Wang Junhong, the manager of a sports ground in Shanghai. 'The networks are sophisticated. If you make a correct bet on a weekend game, you will receive your winnings on Monday.
'People bet on the big leagues in Europe - Spain, Italy, Germany, England and France. You can bet on the result, the score and who will get the goals. The World Cup will be the climax, with the biggest amounts. The police do not bother with the small gamblers but sometimes arrest the big boys, to make an example,' he added.
This explains why the newsstands are full of magazines and newspapers devoted to football. Among them is the daily Soccer News, with 32 pages of detailed coverage of the sport in China and Europe, providing punters with the information they need to make their bets. It includes data on the teams that will take part in the World Cup that begins in Germany in less than a month.
