Talking Balls: Frustrated Ding, Crazy Wei and Left-out Ross

Local hero Ding Junhui fell at the final hurdle in the 2010 Sanyuan Foods China Open. Mark Williams beat Ding 10-6 after coming from behind to win his first ranking title since 2006. The home crowd were understandably disappointed – their shouts of "Ding, kill him! Finish him!" had no effect on the outcome.

A Chinese journalist asked Ding if he gave up in the final few frames of the match. Ding’s response was "What do you mean by "give up"? Come back after you watch some snooker." He then refused to tell the hack when he would return to England.

CFA supremo Wei Di will forge ahead with his controversial plans to overhaul the traditions of the domestic league to allow the various age groups of Team China to play within it. The plan is that the Under-21s will play in the CSL, the Under-19s in the second tier and the Under-17s in the third flight. These teams will not feature on the league table and will play all matches midweek but the points that teams earn against them will count toward the league. In a league that has been mired by corruption it’s a remarkably bold step to take. The oddest scheme in world football begins later this month.

Wei Di also explained how Golden Whistle Lu Jun used to fix matches: "Say he's bribed by team A, then he gives team B free kicks in some non-dangerous areas, like in midfield. It looks like it's in favor of team B, but actually it's good for team A because it stops team B's attacking process and breaks their tempo..."

Oddness and football apparently make good bedfellows. That is according to an unnamed Beijing Guoan player and his opinion on Maurice Ross: "We lost four goals to Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma, three of them on his right side of defence. All he knows is blaming other players, and he never takes responsibility. Some media reported he suffered from depression for a while, we didn't believe it back then, now thinking about it, he's the only player who doesn't get along with others, and sometimes he just walks away from you in the middle of a conversation. At first we thought it's the language barrier, but look at Joel, Ryan, Otto and Darko. If they can fit in well, why can't he? He still considers himself as the big shot, I mean, come on, I know he was playing for the Scottish National Team, but he's not any more."

Beijing Guoan lost 2-1 to Shenzhen at home on Sunday, Ross didn't play...

Finally, Liu Xiang is doing his bit for Shanghai’s Expo – have a look at his single here.