{"id":728774,"date":"2026-01-29T14:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T14:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/728774\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T14:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T14:50:10","slug":"with-chinas-xi-britains-starmer-hopes-gift-of-manchester-united-match-ball-scores-points","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/728774\/","title":{"rendered":"With China\u2019s Xi, Britain\u2019s Starmer hopes gift of Manchester United match ball scores points"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Chinese President <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/xi-jinping?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"noopener\">Xi Jinping<\/a> received a unique gift from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Beijing on Thursday: the official match ball from Sunday\u2019s fixture between Manchester United and Arsenal, according to media reports.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">While Starmer is an ardent Arsenal fan, Xi is reportedly a supporter of Manchester United.<\/p>\n<p>Manchester United secured a 3-2 victory in a tightly contested match. By offering the gift involving two of the English Premier League\u2019s most celebrated teams, Starmer\u2019s gesture appeared meant to warm up <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/china-uk-relations?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"noopener\">Sino-British ties<\/a> that have been <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/china\/diplomacy\/article\/3341445\/why-britain-seeks-take-its-relationship-china-new-level-keir-starmer-visits?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"noopener\">fraught with complexity<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Xi is widely understood to be a football enthusiast, prompting some world leaders to try their hand at \u201cfootball diplomacy\u201d to find common ground with the Chinese president.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">This was not the first time the Premier League has played a role in the bilateral relationship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chinese President Xi Jinping received a unique gift from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Beijing on Thursday:&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":728775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[13402,10105,161,102,748,1395,216738,23522,393,41316,216737,1824,4884,678,807,886,98,1144,101,532,712,16,216739,15,1764,1773],"class_list":{"0":"post-728774","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-angela-merkel","11":"tag-argentina","12":"tag-arsenal","13":"tag-aston-villa","14":"tag-britain","15":"tag-china","16":"tag-chinese-football","17":"tag-david-cameron","18":"tag-england","19":"tag-english-football","20":"tag-football-diplomacy","21":"tag-germany","22":"tag-great-britain","23":"tag-ireland","24":"tag-keir-starmer","25":"tag-manchester-city","26":"tag-manchester-united","27":"tag-northern-ireland","28":"tag-premier-league","29":"tag-prince-william","30":"tag-scotland","31":"tag-uk","32":"tag-uk-china-relations","33":"tag-united-kingdom","34":"tag-wales","35":"tag-xi-jinping"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115978949512284536","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}