It is hard to imagine a world without the sport, such is its ubiquitous nature, but soccer as we know it is relatively young in human history. In this piece originally published by Soccerex Media Partners, Goal, take a look at the history and origins of the sport.

Here’s what’s been making the headlines this week: The NBA returns to CCTV5 after a year untelevised, Huya merges with DouYu to give Tencent streaming industry domination, Manchester United unveils first of five entertainment centers, Chinese Basketball Association brings on five new sponsors, ITTF announces Dishang Group as title sponsor, and we released the 3rd Age of Sport manifesto alongside Seven League. In this week’s From The Top, we spoke with Sean Zhang, CEO & Co-founder at Talon Sports, where we discuss competing at the recent Lol Worlds, business opportunities in China, benefits of PSG partnership, and expectations for the China sports industry in the next 12 months.

On 21st-25th September, over 2,000 delegates, 130 speakers, clubs, leagues, federations, and leading figures from over 70 Countries came together at the launch of our first virtual event – Soccerex Connected. It was the first time in our 25 year history that we were unable to meet in person as we have done in 48 Cities around the world to date, but the reception from the global football community suggests that we didn’t fail to deliver an experience worthy of the Soccerex brand.