UNCONDITIONAL love is a recurring theme in Eastern philosophy, but if the world’s biggest clubs thought that it applied in the Asian football market, they have been given a rude awakening. Manchester United, for so long the market leaders, suffered the ignominy of playing in a stadium in Beijing that was two-thirds empty, while Real Madrid have been subjected to cynicism — even catcalls — from the fans on whose supposed loyalty they founded what has been a faintly ludicrous world tour.

No sooner did United jet into Tokyo yesterday, still bewildered by their lukewarm reception in China, than Real bade the Japanese capital a somewhat awkward sayonara before departing for Bangkok, the final stop in a 16-day expedition involving six matches in five countries across two continents. A 3-1 victory over Jubilo Iwata lifted spirits, but David Beckham, usually so eager to enhance his image in the Far East, dodged the media and was smuggled out of the stadium on to the bus, where he sat ashen-faced with his team-mates, perhaps wondering where it is all going to end.

The answer is that even Real, whose president admits to buying players on the basis of their media profile, may reflect that “World Tour 2005” was a step too far. Even before last night, Zinedine Zidane had talked of being exhausted, as much by marketing exercises as by matches played in 90-degree heat.

If there was a starting point to the cycle of tetchiness, below-par performances and increasingly disenchanted fans, it was fatigue — and this weeks before the start of a season that Beckham, Ronaldo and others hope will end at the World Cup final in less than a year.

Widespread public and media criticism of Real has undoubtedly had knock-on effects on United, with the Chinese press insisting that the turnout of 24,223 for their 3-0 victory over Beijing Hyundai on Tuesday was largely a result of the Spaniards’ half-hearted 3-2 win over the same opponents two days earlier. There have been other factors, not least that Beckham has moved on since United played in front of 80,000 fans in Shanghai in 1999, but a general feeling of disaffection among locals cannot be ignored.

“People here were unhappy with Madrid because it seemed they were here for money, not the love of football,” one Chinese reporter said. “In Hong Kong some people were not satisfied with Man U because (Sir Alex Ferguson) used 22 different players, but Man U isn’t criticised so much as Madrid. They have had a low profile, but they do try to focus on their fans. They had a 90-minute public training session the day before the game, which was twice as long as Madrid last week, and their attitude in the match was different. They fought very hard. Madrid did not seem so committed.”

It is an appraisal that David Gill, the United chief executive, seemed prepared to accept before today’s game against Kashima Antlers in Tokyo, where, unusually, there are still tickets remaining. “Clearly the crowd in Beijing was disappointing, but there were other factors behind it that we need to look into,” Gill said.

“We don’t conclude from that that we are waning in popularity. All our research, which is based on quantitative analysis, shows that our number of fans in Asia has grown.”

For that, Gill pointed to a willingness to balance an undoubted commercial motivation against football considerations, which, he said, remain the priority. “I can’t speak for other clubs, but we try to get the right balance between the commercial and the football side. If we didn’t, we’d probably get aggro about it,” he said.

In the event, the only real “aggro” has surrounded Roy Keane, whose hamstring injury, cited as the reason for his absence, had cleared sufficiently to allow him to play in a reserve-team friendly against Rossendale United on Tuesday.

Keane, who had a falling out with Ferguson over the pre- season schedule, will also play in a match in Walsall on Saturday. The United manager said that there was “no point” flying his captain to Japan.

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