China Makes Good on Threats: Real Madrid and Mbappé Erased from TV Broadcasts

In depth

China's state broadcaster, CCTV, made good on its threats and did not air a single match from the Spanish league over the weekend, following remarks by Kylian Mbappé about a meme that showed his face on the body of Mao Zedong. According to EFE, as published in Marca, the Chinese broadcaster announced as early as Monday that it was suspending league broadcasts. According to Ynet and Migu, the local streaming platform, the match between Racing Santander and Real Madrid was removed from the broadcast schedule, and the team's earlier matches also disappeared from the archive.

Despite Mbappé's apologies, the boycott continues. According to Channel 14, the boycott is expected to harm the league's revenues. According to Haaretz, sponsorship deals worth millions of euros are being cancelled.