Thu 19 December 2019:
The saga involving Mesut Ozil and the country of China continues to roll on, with the Arsenal man now having been removed from the Chinese versions of popular football video game franchises FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer.
US-listed Chinese internet company NetEase said it removed Ozil from the game due to his “extreme comment about China.”
Ozil, a German national of Turkish origin, condemned China’s crackdown on Muslim minorities in the western region of Xinjiang in a tweet last Friday and criticised Muslim countries for failing to speak up about the alleged abuses.
Arsenal has distanced itself from his comments, while China said his tweets were “untruthful” and that he was “deceived by fake news”.
China has faced growing international condemnation for setting up a vast network of camps in Xinjiang, where critics say Uighurs are pressured to renounce Islam, support the ruling Communist Party, and integrate with China’s majority Han culture.
Rights groups and experts say more than one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities have been incarcerated, part of a long-term government response to tame years of persistent violent unrest against Beijing’s control of Xinjiang.
Ozil had tweeted in Turkish: “Korans are being burnt… Mosques are being shut down… Muslim schools are being banned… Religious scholars are being killed one by one… Brothers are forcefully being sent to camps.”
“The Muslims are silent. Their voice is not heard,” he wrote against a blue backdrop with a white crescent moon — the flag of ‘East Turkestan’, the term many Uighur separatists use for Xinjiang.
Shortly afterward, NetEase announced on its verified Chinese social media accounts that Ozil’s comments had “hurt the feelings of Chinese fans and violated the sport’s spirit of love and peace”.
“We do not understand, accept or forgive this comment.”
China at first denied that the camps existed but, under growing pressure, later acknowledged them, saying they were vocational training centres.
Following his comments, Chinese state television dropped plans to broadcast the English Premier League club’s match last Sunday, and discussion of the topic is now heavily censored in China.
In a similar episode, China moved in October to punish the NBA’s Houston Rockets after its general manager Daryl Morey tweeted support for Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters.
Ozil has been praised on Twitter for speaking out, with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also weighing this week.
“China’s Communist Party propaganda outlets can censor @MesutOzil1088 and @Arsenal’s games all season long, but the truth will prevail,” Pompeo wrote on Twitter, chastising China for its “gross” rights violations against Uighurs.
Is Mesut Ozil deleted from all FIFA & PES games?
No. Arsenal fans outside of the world’s most populous country will be glad to know that the star playmaker will remain in their games, both in the Arsenal squad for online and offline modes, and available to pull in packs in FIFA’s popular ‘Ultimate Team’ mode.
Have any other players been removed?
The only other player to have been removed from either game – at least temporarily – is Marco van Basten, who came under fire for ill-judged comments made on air during a punditry stint on Dutch television.
Fox presenter Hans Kraay was interviewing Heracles coach Frank Wormuth in German, though his command of the language left something to be desired in the eyes of the former Ajax and AC Milan striker, who retorted: “Sieg heil, not so beautiful, pancake”, not realising he was still live on the microphone.
EA Sports made the decision to suspend Van Basten’s ICON items being available in FIFA 20’s Ultimate Team mode, stating: “We are aware of the recent comments made by Marco van Basten. We have an expectation that our commitment to equality and diversity is upheld across our game.
“As such, we will suspend Marco van Basten ICON items from being available in packs, SBCs and FUT draft until further notice.”
In years past, the only instances of players no longer being available in-game was through real-life tragedies, such as the death of former Nantes striker Emiliano Sala, who was no longer available in packs after he passed away.
Turkey, which shares linguistic and ethnic ties with the Uighurs, has been outspoken on the issue but most Muslim-majority countries have been muted in the face of China’s commercial and diplomatic power.
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