China, Germany end football series over political issues

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The Chinese and German football associations have formally abandoned a series of friendly matches after the German side refused to forbid Tibetan separatists at the stadium.

"The German Football Association and the Chinese Football Federation have agreed, following talks, not to continue the series of friendly matches of the Chinese Under-20 team with teams of the southwest regional division," the German Football Association said in a statement on Friday.

The first of 16 planned friendly games between the Chinese Under-20 football team and a German fourth-tier Southwest Regional League team was suspended last month when six spectators put up the lion flags of a Tibetan separatist group. The Chinese players walked off the pitch and refused to continue until the protesters removed the flags.

The matches are part of a Sino-German football treaty signed last November, which laid the groundwork for closer cooperation between the two countries' football associations and its clubs, and allowed China to help improve its national team.

Chinese fans hold a Chinese flag during the friendly match between the Chinese Under-20 football team and a German fourth-tier Southwest Regional League team. /AP Photo

The Chinese side demanded that no such event occur during future matches, but the German side insisted that freedom of speech must be allowed. The club claimed that about 70 people would come to the match with slogans and flags to show their support for "Tibet Independence" during the coming match. In response, the Chinese side said they would stop the match if that occurred.

Xu Qinduo, a current affairs commentator, said that freedom of speech has boundaries, and can't be used as an excuse in this case. He pointed out that there should be a separation between politics and sports.

The Chinese Football Association called the incident "regrettable." It announced the Chinese team was leaving Germany as "China's state interests cannot be harmed."

Sport has been boycotted by politics in Germany, Fan Peng, a research fellow at the Institute of Political Science under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Sunday. "They would rather sacrifice China's interests to earn domestic applause on 'ideological correctness,'" he said. "It has hurt our national feelings. We cannot compromise in handling their arrogance."

CGTN's commentator Dr. Summer said in an opinion piece that "we must also pay due attention to mutual respect in handling cross nation issues in today's world of globalization."