China’s state broadcaster will no longer show Sunday’s match between Arsenal and Manchester City after comments made by midfielder Mesut Ozil, according to reports.
Ozil posted messages on social media accounts Twitter and Instagram, criticising China’s Uighur Muslim persecution.
The Global Times, which is China’s national English language newspaper, stated on Sunday that the match would not be shown live because the player’s remarks had “disappointed fans and football governing authorities”.
The two teams are due to kick off at 4:30pm UK time on Sunday, which would be midnight on Monday morning in China.
Television company CCTV 5 were planning on showing the game but will instead show a taped Premier League match between Wolves and Tottenham instead.
Ozil wrote in his posts on Friday: “(In China) Qurans are burned, mosques were closed down, Islamic theological schools, madrasas were banned, religious scholars were killed one by one. Despite all this, Muslims stay quiet.”
#HayırlıCumalarDoğuTürkistan ?? pic.twitter.com/dJgeK4KSIk
— Mesut Özil (@MesutOzil1088) December 13, 2019
Arsenal shared a post from its official account on Weibo (a Twitter like website), which stated: “The content he expressed is entirely Ozil’s personal opinion.
“As a football club, Arsenal always adheres to the principle of not being involved in politics.”
This created a backlash with Weibo users, one replied by cutting up an Ozil shirt and other demanded that he was expelled by the the Gunners.
Arsenal haven’t posted about the situation on their Twitter account and Ozil’s posts still can be seen with the player not deleting it despite the outrage.
The Chinese FA told a government-backed media outlet, that it was “outraged and disappointed” by Ozil’s “inappropriate” remarks.
An unnamed official from the association said: “Ozil’s comments are undoubtedly hurtful to the Chinese fans who closely follow him, and at the same time his comments also hurt the feelings of Chinese people.
“This is something we cannot accept.”
It is estimated that between one million and two million people, mostly from the Muslim Uighur community, have been detained in harsh conditions in Xinjiang without trial in high-security prison camps.
China has consistently denied mistreating.
After reading that China ‘will not be showing Arsenal vs Man City over Mesut Ozil’s remarks’, fans took to give their reaction with everyone sympathising with the player – see those tweets on the next page.
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