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Japan-China U-22 Soccer Match Marred By Attacks On Japanese Fans

I didn’t watch Friday’s under-22 soccer match between Japan and China, but if the following popular [and selectively edited] YouTube video is any indication, things got pretty ugly:

The Yomiuri Shinbun also reports that Japanese fans were pelted with cups and called racial slurs for daring to cheer for their team in a stadium full of Chinese fans:

About 50,000 Chinese fans were in Shenyang’s Olympic stadium, along with about 100 supporters from Japan.

When the final whistle blew, paper cups were thrown at a group of nine Japanese fans who were behind one of the goals and had been holding up a Hinomaru national flag and cheering on the Japanese side.

A group of more than 100 Chinese fans rushed from the stands to an exit, waving a Chinese flag and taunting Japanese fans by chanting disparaging terms such as “Japanese midgets!”

The nine Japanese supporters were taken by a public security authority car back to their hotel.

Crowd problems are nothing new at soccer matches between the two countries in China.

Angry Chinese fans turned violent after a loss to Japan in the 2004 Asian Cup final, with some fans attacking the car of the Japanese Embassy officials.

26 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - August 5, 2007 at 4:18 pm

Categories: Anti-Japan Tags:

http://www.transpacificradio.com/ Garrett

This brings so many all-too-true stereotypes, or shall I call them accurate generalizations, together in one place:

1. Political freedom and racism or bigotry have a directly inverse relationship. China is one of the most insanely racist places I have ever been – one of those places that’s so outrageously racist that no one even realizes there’s any racism and just takes everything as fact. The only place I’ve seen that can rival China is Russia.

2. Anything with even a tangential relationship to the Chinese government, such as a national soccer team, is going to be filled primarily with people who have no regard for rules or fair play.

3. China, and pretty much all other totalitarian societies, is all about home cooking. I expect the Beijing Olympics to show us Chinese officials under pressure to cheat in favor of the home team whenever possible, producing at least one scandal, probably more.

4. China is completely out of touch with reality. The “Japanese are physically small” thing is a pretty commonly spouted sentiment, despite overwhelming empirical evidence that, if not exactly your average Swede, your average Japanese larger than your average Chinese – makes sense when you consider nutrition, etc.

5. Soccer, at a competitive level, rewards bad sportsmanship, foul play, and dishonesty. “The Beautiful Game” is less appropriate for soccer than any other sport except maybe dog fighting.

Overall, though, there are plenty of reasons for people in China to be welling up with frustration and anger and no way to show that. Just like Americans, with access to all kinds of information, tend to believe that September 11th attacks were and unprovoked act of violence by people who hate their way of life, a lot of Chinese people, who don’t have access to much information, much less factual information, believe that Japan is the reason for their problems.
Gino

Ok, when the soccer hooligans in Europe act up, nobody blames it on politics. But when the chinese soccer hooligans act up, its all because of political freedom.

I have been to China, and i’m not sure if they blame Japanese for the bad things that are happening to them now.

BUT, they blame Japanese for many of the bad things that happened to them during the past. heck, u don’t even need to ask Chinese people to give you reasons why they hate Japanese, you can ask any number of their neighbours. Koreans can come up with loads of reasons.

http://www.transpacificradio.com/ Garrett

I’ve been to China, they blame Japan for a lot that has nada to do with Japan and a lot that hasn’t happened. Having also been to Korea, I can say that, while Korea has a bit too much of a one-way rivalry going on, it is vastly more reasonable in its approach to Japan, indeed the world, on the level of Joe Average, than China, for which the rest of the world, and even most of China, is fantastical doplleganger of reality.

shazzb0t

Man… some of those calls were terrible on the part of the refs. I mean I have a definite Japanese bias, but even so some of those calls/non-calls were atrocious.

As far as the Chinese fans being racist and so on, this is football’s biggest problem today. The inbred fans of each national/club teams can’t help but be racist little gits. I know the Chinese-Japanese rivalry is almost always historically linked to the past and I think to some extent that is allowed by the Chinese authorities. It is symptomatic of an aspect of Chinese foreign policy in regards to Japan which is to demonize them and allow perhaps even condone anti-Japanese sentiment in their nation. Too bad many Chinese fall for this petty and incredibly uncivilized way of addressing history and the Japanese.

Maybe some day these issues will be a part of the past, but until the Japanse and Chinese governments come to some agreement or truce on the tragedies of the past, these bigots will continue to hate.
http://higashiajia.wordpress.com Peter Pan

::Ok, when the soccer hooligans in Europe act up, nobody blames it on politics. But when the chinese soccer hooligans act up, its all because of political freedom.

Have you ever seen a England VS. Ireland game?
Pingback: Japanese soccer team being booed during national anthem performance
http://myspace.com/truthson D-san

It’s just a damn game people!
Ronaldinho

The ref must be Bruce Lee’s number one fan.
Chinese are not only good at making cheap stuff: they are great at slide-tackles from behind.
Tasty Wheat Curls

Er…I never remember seeing a international competitive match being refereed by a fellow countryman of either team before. Anyone knows of any other similar examples?
LOD

We already know how barbaric Chinese soccer fans are. What’s really surprising for this game is, the fact that all the judges are not from third countries, but from China. Now that’s something unthinkable as an international soccer match.

But of course, they are still justified to do whatever they want, because Japanese did horrible things in the past, right? (Shrug)

shazzb0t

Oh man! That explains everything… I can’t believe that the Japanese would allow this game to go on knowing that all of the officials were Chinese. Simply unacceptable and its obvious that the refs showed a definite bias towards the Chinese team.. Even with all that help they still couldn’t win the game.. This is very poor sportsmanship on behalf of the Chinese team. As a football fan I must say that I am very much disgusted.

helical

No doubt the judges were likely punished for their shameful performance.
They had all the freedom to make their calls but they could only work the game into a tie and couldn’t make the Chinese team win!
Tesuko Yorimasa

Hi,
I ask my father to watch this football match game, he was was a regional referee in France in the 80′s, He told me that this match was totally dirty and it was the entire referee fault, but when I told him that the referees were also Chinese he look at me very surprise, how this thing could be possible on an internal match, he didn’t remember exactly, but he think that the in an international FIFA football match, the referees must be from a third country, if not, something corrupt is corrupted in that match organization
Karina

Regardless of history, racism on football/soccer supporters who have done nothing wrong is simply immature.
While I was delighted that Iraq won the Asian Cup because even though Japan didn’t win, I thought it would bring a short moment of joy and peace to their country…it showed that people of different sects of Islam can work together peacefully, and showed how football/soccer can unite people in peace and harmony, this blatant display of racism and immaturity is shameful.

If they want to protest what Japan did in the past, then fine.
The Chinese have the right to be angry over Japan.
But if they want to protest, they better be using peaceful means, they better NOT use racism in the process, and they better NOT attack innocent football/soccer supporters.

One wonders if China will do this sort of thing again at next year’s Olympics…

shazzb0t

I agree with your thoughts on Iraq winning. I thought it was a great moment in sport history that a lot of people barely noticed.

I hope China doesn’t act like children at the Olympics. That would be a great shame.

John Savage

Dirty and all as this game was, I really enjoyed it! It was a really close match! The referees decisions were really terrible though, he should definately get some sort of punishment for that.
Syd

I’ve been to a Scotland vs. Ireland match and it is nothing like this. They separate politics from the game 100%. Even when you watch the England/Ireland games they don’t jeer during the opponents national anthem. That’s racist, that’s not soccer.
The calls and refs could have been better… but that’s not what this is about, this is about people being bullied because of their race, read the article that goes with the video.

Jeff

You should go to a US vs. Mexico match – Mexicans always shout and whistle throughout the US anthem. It’s completely because of politics. Only state this as another example of this behavior, not a comment on the Mexican fans. Make of it what you will.

John

Hi Jeff, could you elaborate on the politics? I thought the Mexicans would be appreciative of the USA for supplying so many with jobs.

Jeff

I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt that that was a totally neutral, innocent question – just in case someone here really doesn’t know and is interested

When I lived in the States and went to games, it wasn’t about any particular issue that I’m aware of, and wasn’t so bad. Lately it’s been about immigration policy and The Wall.

Ronaldinho

Perhaps if you gave them California and Texas back…
( just kidding)

Jeff

Curious if anyone has ever been to a game with China hosting anyone else – I mean, is it possible that the Chinese fans are just a bunch of thugs and treat everyone this way? Or is Japan the only one ever singled out?

I do know about the overall sentiment there, but is that entirely the case in this example?

John

They, like other East Asians, seem to look down on any other Asians and won’t mind being thugs if they’re pissed off, but are generally polite to everyone else. This excludes the swarm of beggars you might encounter if you go into the rural areas and start giving some change. No joke >_>

Bangaroo

I’ve heard FIFA is investigating this matter, China may lose future entrance for many football games.
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Japan-China U-22 Soccer Match Marred By Attacks On Japanese Fans

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