Asia is simply no longer a soccer cash cow

If this is Spain's idea of a charm offensive, perhaps it would be better served trying to make inroads somewhere less challenging, like Antarctica.

It was supposed to be different this time. This wasn't the cynical money-grab by Real Madrid in 2005, this was Barcelona! The champion of sexy football, playing soccer the way it was meant to be played! If any club could break the English Premier League's vice grip on the Asian market, surely it would be the happy-go-lucky, tiki-taka Blaugrana, right?

Not from the evidence so far. Look beyond the on-field action and Barcelona - which proudly brands itself "mes que un club", more than a club - is just another big European name with an appetite to match. The sordid attempts to pry Cesc Fabregas away from Arsenal, spending beyond its means to the tune of losing 77 million ($102.3 million) euros last season and now rocking up on Asian shores, trying to soak up as much adulation and cash with as little effort as possible, is hardly the behavior of a club that considers itself above the fray.