Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil gets the 404 treatment on Chinese television

Such is the extent of Mesut Ozil’s blacklisting in China that TV commentators don’t mention the Arsenal star’s name.

Arsenal midfielder Mesut Ozil is being ignored by China’s TV commentators. Picture: AFP

Mesut Ozil is facing a permanent blacklisting in China to such an extent that TV commentators are deliberately not mentioning his name during broadcasts of Arsenal matches.

Ozil played a starring role in Arsenal’s 2-0 victory over Manchester United last week but the commentators on the PPTV streaming channel did not mention his name once, either when running through the team line-ups or when the 31-year-old was heavily involved in key moments of the match.

Observers of Chinese football say that Ozil will be blanked for ever, with his name not even mentioned when he scores. The treatment of the German playmaker, who is of Turkish heritage, follows Ozil’s stinging criticism on social media of China’s treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority in the Xinjiang region.

The action against the Arsenal player by the Chinese media has led to jokes on fans’ forums in China that Ozil has been 404’d – a reference to the Google error message 404 which comes up when a webpage no longer exists.

The state broadcaster CCTV has not shown an Arsenal match since Ozil’s criticism on December 13. PPTV, which streams all Premier League matches in China, dropped games featuring Arsenal but resumed showing them after Christmas, with Ozil’s involvement being ignored.

Internet searches of Ozil’s name in China now bring up error messages, while there has been a backlash against him elsewhere: a doctored photograph showing him with his foot on a flag of China was shared thousands of times in a Facebook post.

One Beijing-based expert in Chinese football, who asked not to be named, told The Times: “As a commercial money-making body, PP Sports have to balance their commercial interests and the political risks. So they have chosen what they think is the best strategy: continuing airing Arsenal matches in a low-key way with Ozil ignored.”

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Meanwhile, Gunners coach Mikel Arteta has said that he hopes to persuade Granit Xhaka to stay at the club in the long term. The Switzerland midfielder, 27, gave Arteta an assurance that he would stay, having previously agreed personal terms with Hertha Berlin, the Bundesliga club.

The proposed move was initially sparked by Xhaka falling out with Unai Emery, the previous Arsenal head coach, after losing the captaincy when he refused to apologise for his reaction to home fans booing him against Crystal Palace in October.

“The first message for him was that I wanted to understand why he was feeling that way,” Arteta said.

“I wanted him to hear my opinion on him, that I was ready to support him and that I was ready to push the club to be supportive of him too because I thought he could be a really good player for us.

“He thought about it, had a very positive response afterwards, and I think he changed his mind.”

THE TIMES