China’s state television does not air the first La Liga games on Saturday following a controversy involving Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappé. Multiple outlets report that the issue is linked to Mbappé’s joke about Mao Zedong, which sparked public anger.
The reports do not fully agree on the reason or mechanism for the broadcast change. One account says it is unclear whether CCTV had initially scheduled the matches and then cancelled them, or whether they were never planned for broadcast in the first place. Another report frames the situation more directly around the fact that the games are not being aired, without adding additional detail on scheduling or cancellation.
Overall, both articles attribute the absence of coverage to the earlier Mbappé-Mao controversy, while differing slightly in how much they explain about what happened behind the scenes at the broadcaster.
