China bans soccer players from getting new tattoos

The China National Team has unique new guidelines to help its players be “an example to society.”

The General Sports Administration of China published on Tuesday a series of guidelines to “strengthen the management of soccer players”, among which is the prohibition of members of the national team to get new tattoos, reported today the local media The Paper.

The guidelines aim to make footballers “positive examples for society” and recommend that those who already have tattoos erase them, in addition to prohibiting the U-20 and lower teams from calling up players with tattooed bodies.

It is not the first time that tattoos have caused controversy in Chinese football: in the China Cup disputed in 2018, many players had to cover their tattoos with bandages.

In official photographs of the components of the Chinese team, tattoos like the ones that Chinese players like Zhang Xizhe or Zhang linpeng they have been erased with image retouching programs on some occasions.

The Administration also added in its guidelines the organization of activities of “ideological and political education” in the national teams to reinforce the “patriotic education” of the players.

The Chinese Selection This year, the football team reaped a new failure by being virtually without possibilities of qualifying for the Qatar World Cup 2022, in a bad performance that caused the resignation of his coach, Li Tie.

China does not qualify for a world Cup since the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, for which it did not have to face local powers South Korea and Japan as they were already classified as hosts.

Despite government efforts to raise the country’s soccer level, the team continues to reap poor results and harsh criticism from fans.

For this reason, some Internet users on the Weibo social network criticized the tattoo ban: “They do not take charge of what they should take charge, they do insignificant things to show that they are doing something,” commented one user.

Others, on the other hand, supported the measure: “In East Asian societies, we have always rejected tattoos” or “we must protect the next generations,” said two commentators.