Comedian riles Chinese soccer fans with Weibo post

Chinese are famously known to dislike their men’s national team – especially after they failed to qualify for the ongoing World Cup.

But as Chinese American comedian Joe Wong found out recently, some don’t have a sense of humor about it.

Wong was heckled on Sina Weibo over a recent post in which he suggested getting rid of the national team altogether.

“We can use those expenses to build more soccer stadiums. Good players can go play for foreign clubs. China should compete in the World Cup when 11 good players can be scraped together,” Wong wrote in Chinese, NetEase reported on Sunday.

The post went viral, garnering unhappy comments from both fans and players. It has since been deleted. “You can make fun of us personally. But it is not proper for a public figure to speak ignorantly on a public platform. Show some respect for other people’s professions,” wrote Zhou Haibin, a midfielder for Shandong Luneng Taishan F.C.

However, some soccer fans agreed with Wong. “How dare they get paid so well and live a good life when they play like that?” wrote “Love5254.”

“The national team is hopeless, and they don’t want people saying so. So not only are they terrible, but they’ve also got a bad temper,” commented “baiyexing seng.”

Wong responded in a post, saying “I just made a suggestion that I didn’t think people would take seriously. I meant to laugh it all off, but instead I gave people a chance to shout abuse. I take back what I said. Now let’s get some sleep.”

The post also was deleted.