Recently, chaos in Chinese football has been rampant. In a boys’ youth football league match in Beijing, a bizarre incident occurred where players from both teams shot own goals at each other. As a result, four coaches and team leaders were banned for life from engaging in football activities by the Beijing Football Association, sparking discussions and controversy.
On April 4th, the 5th Chinese Youth Football League for players aged 10 and under (U10) held matches in the Beijing division, with the “Dongcheng Sports School 16 Orange Team” competing against the “Footballers Lan Team.”
A video circulating online showed purportedly a coach from the Dongcheng Sports School in Beijing reporting to the referee and match supervisor after the opponent scored two own goals, with the response being to address the issue post-match. The coach then remarked, “So, can we do the same?” Following this, their team also started scoring own goals.
According to the Beijing Football Association’s announcement, in the second half of the match, the “Footballers Lan Team” consecutively scored own goals three times, after which the “Dongcheng Sports School” followed suit, scoring two own goals. During this sequence, both goalkeepers from each side failed to make effective saves.
This absurd incident of “mutual own goals” has shocked the sports world. Subsequently, the Beijing Football Association imposed a lifelong ban on four coaches and team leaders involved in the incident, prohibiting them from participating in any football activities.
This incident has ignited heated discussions among netizens: “Match-fixing from a young age.” “Let’s be real, football can just disappear from China now.” “They should just cancel the U10 league.” “This is how Chinese football is, if not for these actions, they would have been in the World Cup several times by now.”