First of all I should start this piece by wishing everybody a happy new year! I've been enjoying myself over the Christmas holiday and have neglected the blog over the last few days so I need to rectify this, starting off with a piece regarding the new Emperor's Cup winners in Japan.

FC Tokyo have done an unlikely league and cup double in Japan following their 4-2 triumph over Kyoto Sanga in last Sunday's Emperor's Cup final.

By Andrew Crawford, writing from Shanghai

Despite the city starting to slow down for the Chinese New Year, Shanghai Shenhua's PR machine remains as busy as ever. The club's website is more brightly coloured than usual and images of the new manager, Jean Tigana, and his star player, Nicolas Anelka, flicker across the screen whilst behind them, four silhouetted figures stand in the background.

Etoile FC were allowed to play two seasons in the S-League despite having failed to provide the full $500,000 banker's guarantee that foreign clubs have to put up, it is believed.

That is one reason why the club, facing debts 'a few times more' than the $100,000 that has been reported, has been struggling to repay money owed to players from last season.

By Andrew Crawford, writing from Shanghai

With the Chinese Super League (CSL) now in full swing, Shanghai Shenhua, having spent an offseason gleefully cranking up expectations, are now being forced to finally back up their big talk - and so far it is not going well.