Chinese state TV continues Real Madrid blackout after Mbappe-Mao meme row

Real Madrid’s Spanish football league match against Racing Santander has not been broadcast on Chinese state TV as La Liga continues to pay the price of the fallout from Kylian Mbappe’s remarks about the country’s former leader Mao Zedong.

Neither of the two sports channels on the Chinese state broadcaster CCTV aired Real Madrid’s match on Sunday after star forward Mbappe caused a furore in the Asian country, where millions follow the Spanish league.

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The match kicked off at 15:15 GMT but was not broadcast on either of CCTV’s two sports channels, according to the AFP news agency.

None of the other matches from matchweek 11 of La Liga has been broadcast live on public television so far.

Mbappe referred to Mao as a “dictator” in a video from April that went viral recently. It resulted in the body overseeing CCTV saying it would halt broadcasts of the top Spanish league.

Mbappe, Real and La Liga later all apologised for his remarks, and China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it took the player’s apology “seriously”.

Al Jazeera has reached out to La Liga for a comment but had not received a response from the Spanish league by the time of publication.

La Liga matches were broadcast on Migu, a digital streaming service owned by the state-owned China Mobile telecommunications network, according to reports.

The broadcast included Barcelona’s 6-1 win over Alaves on Saturday, but the Racing Santander-Real Madrid match did not appear to be shown.

The China Media Group (CMG), which oversees CCTV, had said it suspended La Liga broadcasts on October 26, 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 the funniest internet meme he had seen about himself was of his face photoshopped onto that of “some guy. I think he’s a Chinese dictator.”

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

Mbappe later apologised for his “ill-judged” comments. La Liga said it “deeply” regretted them, and Real followed suit.

CCTV’s sports website later reported that CMG had acknowledged the apologies, but it remained unclear whether talks to defuse the situation have begun.

China is a huge market for European football. CCTV also carries matches from the English Premier League and the German, French and Italian top flights.

Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho said on Saturday that the club had “done our part” to put the controversy behind them.

It is taboo in China to crack jokes about Mao, who died in 1976 and whose policies are blamed by historians for mass starvation and millions of deaths.

Major Chinese brands cancelled sponsorship deals with Mbappe after his comments.

Various overseas sports leagues and players have found themselves in hot water for comments on topics that are politically sensitive to China.

China essentially cut ties with the NBA for several years from 2019 after then-Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey tweeted his support for Hong Kong protesters.