There were no riots seven years on when the Italian Super Cup came to the National Stadium, although there was minor displeasure from some Chinese AC Milan fans despite having watched their team beat city rivals Inter thanks to comeback goals from Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Jerome Boateng.

It was a hot and humid August night and some AC Milan fans had chosen to attend a party at a Beijing hotel, with each of them paying 100 yuan (US$14 to attend). For that they got just cola and some edamame, and after complaints on social media came a new nickname.

What initially started off as a joke used by other fans against them – calling the Rossoneri the “edamame” – Milan fans have since made it their own.

Liverpool are worthy title winners – whenever it happens

That is why AC Milan are known in China as “Wo mao” or “My edamame” – it does not hurt that the “mao” character of “maodou” (edamame) is loosely similar to the transliteration for Milan.

Another thing not forgotten is that after Sars, Real Madrid were the first club to come to China, beating Dragon Team XI 3-0 in front of a packed Workers’ Stadium in early August 2003. It was the club’s first trip to China and they brought their “galacticos” – David Beckham, Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo et al.

Nor is it forgotten that Liverpool refused to travel to the mainland that summer but did go to Hong Kong, where they strolled past a Hong Kong XI 6-0 in the city’s first high-profile visit after being ravaged by Sars.

in the present day, China and Hong Kong are popular summer tour spots for all of Europe’s biggest clubs, with some visiting almost every summer. The coronavirus, back when the outbreak was largely confined to the mainland, caused clubs to cancel their plans for this summer but times have changed.

As the battle has become a global pandemic, football has been cancelled worldwide. There will be no tours anywhere this summer but does that mean we won’t see the teams in China?

European leagues will need to find a way to complete their seasons when they resume but the coronavirus is still on the rise on the continent.

Meanwhile, China reported zero new cases from within the country for the first time last week, with all new recorded cases coming from overseas. So why not relocate everything to China?

You could have the English Premier League take place in Beijing and Tianjin, and La Liga in Shanghai and Suzhou. The German Bundesliga can be held in, say, Guangzhou, and Serie A in Shenzhen. As for France’s Ligue 1, why not Nanjing?

The locations are unimportant as there are more than enough cities and football grounds within them to go around. Add to that each club can have their own five-star hotel to themselves to be based – and do their 14-day quarantine on arrival – and it makes more sense. If they really wanted, China is probably the only place where every team would stand a chance of getting their own five-star hotel with an attached golf course.

Games will still be behind closed doors but they could be televised in China at reasonable hours, rather than 4am, and everyone back in Europe can watch them in the morning and afternoon – it’s not like anyone is going to work now, is it? Even better they can all pretend it is like the World Cup: football in the summer and at unusual kick-off times.

It beats some of the other ideas, such as The Sun reporting that the English Premier League is considering playing all of its remaining games at neutral grounds in the Midlands. Why not the mainland instead?

This means television wins, which is where football has been heading for years, and so does China – ditto.

It is definitely worth considering – I’ll even forgo my cut for coming up with the idea (but I don’t have to if you insist).

Liverpool winning the league in China would delight their fans and maybe even win some back, but one thing is for sure. Football would never forget the season everyone finished their leagues in China.