China state TV does not air first La Liga games since Mbappe furore

BEIJING, China (AFP) -- Chinese state television did not air on Saturday the first La Liga games since Real Madrid star Kylian Mbappe caused anger with a joke about the country's former leader Mao Zedong.

It was not immediately clear whether state broadcaster CCTV had scheduled screenings of the matches and then cancelled them, or whether they were not scheduled in the first place.

A viral video in recent days showed Mbappe referring to Mao as a "dictator", prompting the body overseeing CCTV to say it would halt broadcasts of the top Spanish league.

Mbappe, Real and La Liga later all said sorry for his remarks, and China's foreign ministry said it took the player's apology "seriously".

But state broadcaster CCTV's sport channels still chose not to show Villarreal's 1-0 defeat to Espanyol, nor Atletico Madrid's win against Levante, on Saturday.

Three more games are due to take place overnight in China, with Barcelona, who have a strong following there, also in action.

Asked by AFP before the weekend, La Liga said that Chinese television had previously shown all games live, without specifying which platforms hosted the broadcasts.

AFP journalists did find live broadcasts of the first two matches on Migu, a digital streaming service owned by the state-owned China Mobile telecom network.

China Media Group (CMG), which oversees CCTV, had said it had moved on Monday to suspend La Liga broadcasts, adding that apologies from La Liga, Mbappe and Real Madrid were "an absolute prerequisite" for moving past the furore.

The viral video showed Mbappe saying that the funniest internet meme about him he had seen was of his face photo-shopped onto that of "some guy -- I think he's a Chinese dictator".

This was an apparent reference to a meme of Mbappe superimposed on an image of Mao.

Mbappe later apologised for his "ill-judged" comments, La Liga said it "deeply" regretted them, and Real followed suit.

CCTV's sports website later reported that CMG had acknowledged the apologies, but it remains unclear whether talks to defuse the situation have begun.

China is a huge market for European football, with CCTV also carrying matches from the Premier League as well as the German, French and Italian top flights.

Real, who are hugely popular in the country, are due to play Racing Santander on Sunday.

Real coach Jose Mourinho said on Saturday that the club had "done our part" to put the controversy behind them.

It is taboo in China to crack jokes about Mao, who died in 1976 and whose drastic policies are blamed by historians for mass starvation and millions of deaths.

Major Chinese brands cancelled sponsorship deals with Mbappe after his comments.

Various overseas sports leagues and players have found themselves in hot water for comments on topics that are politically sensitive to China.

China effectively cut ties with the NBA for several years from 2019 after then-Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted his support for Hong Kong protesters.