Chelsea’s Brazilian midfielder Kenedy, caused an uproar after posting a pair of videos to his Instagram page, and there’s a possibility the club may face an outright ban.
Kenedy’s insensitive Instagram posts may result in Chelsea being banned from China.
The Brazilian attracted criticism for a pair of videos posted to his social media page during Chelsea’s pre-season tour of the country.
The posts were considered offensive by many Chinese fans and Kenedy was jeered by large sections of the crowd during his side’s 3-0 friendly win over Arsenal in Beijing on Saturday.
Several sources have confirmed that government authorities have ordered Chinese media to “withdraw all related stories about Chelsea from their dual homepages and news apps”.
Meanwhile, a source from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said there remains a remote possibility that Chelsea will suffer an outright ban, but they will “closely monitor the situation”.
It seems the authorities may be pulling all the strings to appease a rising nationalist fever for the ‘Kenedy Saga’ to maintain the social stability, which is of paramount importance for the government ahead of the 19th Party Congress this fall.
Chelsea have confirmed that Kenedy has been “strongly reprimanded and disciplined” for the posts that caused such outrage in China.
The 21-year-old said sorry with another post and deleted the contentious ones, while Chelsea issued an apology via their Chinese social media platforms. The club then went one stage further with another note of apology.
“On July 22nd, Chelsea Football Club experienced the warmth and friendliness of Chinese fans at the National Stadium. However, we were surprised and disappointed that one day prior to the match, one of our young players, Kenedy, posted messages on his social media account that caused great offence and hurt the feelings of the people of China,” the statement began.
“Unfortunately, even though he quickly deleted the messages and apologised, and the club also apologised via our Chinese social media channels, the damage had already been done. Chelsea Football Club once again solemnly and sincerely apologises.
“Kenedy’s actions were a mistake that he will learn greatly from. His behaviour does not represent the entire team and does not align with the club’s high expectations and strict requirements of its young players. He has been strongly reprimanded and disciplined.
Chelsea Football Club apology to Chinese people for player’s offensive social media posts https://t.co/lGanPiaJ6o
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) July 23, 2017
“Everyone at Chelsea Football Club has the utmost respect and admiration for China and loves our Chinese fans. It is because of this that the negative impact we have seen over the last two days has left us shocked and saddened. Once again, we sincerely apologise for the hurt caused to our Chinese fans as well as to the Chinese people.
“The match was a great cultural exchange event between China and Britain and the club is extremely grateful to China for its hospitality, which has brought us closer together in friendship. We very much hope to build on our strong relationship with our Chinese fans and friends, joining hands firmly with China in future for further cooperation
“We offer this apology with utmost sincerity. We have listened carefully to the criticism and will use the lessons learnt over the last two days to improve our processes in future.”
The People’s Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Communist Party of China, reprimanded Chelsea in a harshly worded editorial after the Blues issued their first short apology on Weibo.
“Best to keep your mouth shut, you troublemakers. If you do not learn to respect others, you will never earn the respect yourself.
“Kenedy is still defending himself in his apology, and Chelsea’s statement is perfunctory to say the least.
“The hospitable Chinese people don’t welcome such guest. Such Chelsea will be treated as a ‘persona non grata’ in the future.”
