Chinese state TV fails to air Real Madrid match after Mbappe row

BEIJING: Chinese state broadcaster CCTV did not broadcast a Real Madrid La Liga match on Sunday (Nov 1) after star forward Kylian Mbappe caused a furore in China with remarks he made about former leader Mao Zedong.

The match between Real Madrid and Racing Santander began at 315pm GMT (11pm, Singapore time) but was not broadcast on either of CCTV's two sports channels, AFP reporters saw.

None of the other matches from the 11th round of La Liga have been broadcast live on public television so far.

A viral video in recent days showed Mbappe referring to Mao as a "dictator", prompting the body overseeing CCTV to say it would halt broadcasts of the top Spanish league.

Mbappe, Real and La Liga later all said sorry for his remarks, and China's foreign ministry said it took the player's apology "seriously".

Asked by AFP before the weekend, La Liga said that Chinese television had previously shown all games live, without specifying which platforms hosted the broadcasts.

AFP journalists did find live broadcasts of matches on Migu, a digital streaming service owned by the state-owned China Mobile telecom network. That included Barcelona's 6-1 win over Alaves on Saturday.

However, the Racing Santander–Real Madrid match did not appear to be broadcast on Sunday on Migu.

China Media Group (CMG), which oversees CCTV, had said it had moved on Monday to suspend La Liga broadcasts, adding that apologies from La Liga, Mbappe and Real Madrid were "an absolute prerequisite" for moving past the furore.

The viral video showed Mbappe saying that the funniest internet meme about him he had seen was of his face photoshopped onto that of "some guy, I think he's a Chinese dictator".

This was an apparent reference to a meme of Mbappe superimposed on an image