Japan Fans Boo China Draw; China Claim It Never Happened.

February 8th, 2010 | by: chris | View Comments

This game, like many before, has made Japanese fans furious. Japan have embarked on their World Cup run up with a number of disappointing results, resulting in a chorus of boos with the Japanese higher-ups leading the charge. The officially unofficial East Asian Championships gives them a chance to get back on track, but a scoreless draw was all they could muster. They’d probably love to pretend it simply never happened.

China are doing just that.

The game was scheduled for television, but somehow, it did not air. Nor was their any mention of the game on the morning news.

The CCTV 5 channel, which owns 85 percent of China’s sports television market, had bought the broadcasting rights to the East Asian Championship tie and had scheduled it for a live broadcast from Tokyo on Saturday evening, local media said. When fans tuned in for the clash with China’s fiercest rivals, however, they were presented instead with a local version of the long-running European gameshow Jeux Sans Frontier, “Inter-Cities”.

In Sunday’s sports news bulletins, CCTV-5 did not mention the 0-0 result, or even that the match itself had taken place, local newspapers reported.
CCTV-5 officials declined to comment to local media on the reasons for dropping the match and were not available for comment on Monday.

The easy answer is the current match-fixing scandal “rocking” Chinese football. “Rocking”, but more in the “a cozy rocking chair on the porch of a breezy spring day” drawer than “a dingy battling the seas of a hurricane”. China’s domestic scene is the footballing equivalent to any of the hundreds of straight-to-DVD Steven Seagal Eastern European actions films released in the last six months. Nary a jaw has been dropped. Which is likely why they’d like to pretend football is on winter hiatus.

Imagine if this could be done by any country displeased with the current state of footballing affairs? It’d solve so many problems.

- Thierry Henry? France qualified for the World Cup at the end of regulation. Honest.

- The Ciro Ferrara Era? Juventus officially submitted a request, then accepted, to play the entire campaign as friendlies and start over in 2010/11.

- John Terry? John’s a virgin, despite the ample evidence provided by his children. And Wayne Bridge.