Ozil’s remarks on China could cost clubs millions
PREMIER LEAGUE clubs are concerned they will lose hundreds of millions of pounds in television and sponsorship revenue from China after the state broadcaster CCTV took the dramatic step of scrapping live coverage of Arsenal v Manchester City yesterday. The extraordinary decision to replace the live broadcast with a re-run of Tottenham’s 2-1 win at Wolves earlier in the day was widely viewed as a response to comments made by Mesut Ozil last week, when the Arsenal star criticised China’s treatment of its Muslim Uighur population. Arsenal were quick to distance themselves from Ozil’s views, releasing a statement on the Chinese social media platform Weibo saying the club was ‘apolitical’. But that proved insufficient for the Chinese authorities and the controversy that could have major implications for the Premier League, whose clubs have developed close ties with China in recent years. Wolves are owned by Chinese conglomerate Fosun, Man City have Chinese investors, and betting companies from China are the main shirt sponsors of Bournemouth and Crystal Palace. In addition, many of the other Premier League clubs have significant commercial deals in China, all 20 benefit from the record £564million TV contract with the state broadcaster and the prestigious pre-season tournament the Premier League Asia Trophy was held in Shanghai and Nanjing earlier this year. The Premier League declined to comment on the situation, but sources conceded there is concern about the potential for further fallout in a row which has echoes of China’s dispute with the NBA earlier this year. In that instance, the Chinese Basketball Association and several companies severed ties with the Houston Rockets after their general manager Daryl Morey had expressed support for pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong on Twitter. Such is the importance of China to the Premier League that the current rights package covering the period from 2019-2022 was one of the first they sold in 2016, with then executive chairman Richard Scudamore obtaining the biggest ever overseas rights package worth £564m, 12 times the value of the previous deal.
Ozil (below) triggered a diplomatic row last week by condemning China’s treatment of the Muslim Uighur community following reports from human rights groups that almost a million people are being held without trial in high-security prison camps in province of Xinjiang. China says they are being educated in ‘vocational training centres’ to combat violent religious extremism. ‘In China, Qurans are burned, mosques were closed down, Islamic theological schools, madrasas were banned, religious scholars were killed one by one,’ Ozil wrote on Twitter. ‘Despite all this, Muslims stay quiet.’ Arsenal responded with a statement on Weibo saying: ‘The content he expressed is entirely Ozil’s personal opinion. As a football club Arsenal always adheres to the principle of not being involved in politics.’ But that proved insufficient to resolve the matter. A spokesperson for the Chinese Football Association told government-backed news outlet, The Paper, that it was ‘outraged and disappointed’ by Ozil’s remarks, which it claimed ‘hurt the feelings of Chinese people.’