The General Administration of Sports of China published a report that handles a series of topics to “strengthen the management of soccer players.” However, local media The Paper highlighted a rather striking and somewhat exaggerated one. It is about the prohibition of having tattoos on footballers of the Chinese team.
These guidelines are intended to have players as ‘positive role models for society’. In addition, they recommended to players who already have tattoos that they erase or cover them. Added to that, the call to the U-20 and lower teams of footballers with tattooed bodies was prohibited.
There was already controversy around this in 2018. It occurred in the China Cup of that year, where several players had to cover their tattoos with bandages. This antecedent is key in the imposition given by the authoritarian Chinese regime.
In official photographs of the components of the Chinese team, tattoos such as those worn on the arms by Chinese players such as Zhang Xizhe or Zhang Linpeng have been erased with image retouching programs on some occasions.
It is worth mentioning that the Administration emphasizes highlighting and reinforcing the “patriotic education” of athletes. For this reason, they see the need to organize and carry out “ideological and political education” activities.
China still owes at the national team level
Beyond that, the failure of the Chinese soccer team should be mentioned. This team was left out of the Qatar 2022 World Cup, prematurely, and will not be able to attend a World Cup for the fifth time in a row. The last time they were in a contest of these was in 2002, the year where it was held in South Korea and Japan.
Returning to the issue of tattoos, the imposition of the Administration has several detractors. For example, on the social network Weibo they focused on this, and with much criticism. “They don’t take charge of what they should take charge, they do insignificant things to show that they are doing something,” commented one user.
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