Players told to control middle fingers

BEIJING – Chinese footballers accused of making obscene gestures to the crowd have been told to control their middle fingers by league officials, state media reported yesterday.

Officials were examining two incidents involving crowd violence this month in which the conduct of players was questioned. On April 1, fans of Henan Jiangye smashed windows of the visiting Shandong team bus after the home team were held to a 1-1 draw, according to the report.A week later Tianjin’s Czech coach Josef Jarabinsky was reportedly forced to flee from rampaging home fans after his team beat Zhejiang 3-1.”We don’t have concrete evidence to prove they gave the finger to fans but I can well believe it,” Lang Xiaonong, secretary of China’s Super League, was quoted as saying in the Beijing Morning Post.”The cultural level of some of our Chinese footballers is regrettably low.””All we can do is to encourage them to improve their manners and behave calmly whatever fans may do.”Crowd trouble is a common problem in China’s Super league.Last month hooligans surrounded and damaged a car carrying China’s national head coach Zhu Guanghu after a league match in Xiamen, southeastern China.That match also involved Tianjin, who beat home team Xiamen 2-1.”It is obvious that our fans can behave in a pretty unreasonable way, resulting in some unfortunate incidents,” said Lang.Nampa-AFPOn April 1, fans of Henan Jiangye smashed windows of the visiting Shandong team bus after the home team were held to a 1-1 draw, according to the report.A week later Tianjin’s Czech coach Josef Jarabinsky was reportedly forced to flee from rampaging home fans after his team beat Zhejiang 3-1.”We don’t have concrete evidence to prove they gave the finger to fans but I can well believe it,” Lang Xiaonong, secretary of China’s Super League, was quoted as saying in the Beijing Morning Post.”The cultural level of some of our Chinese footballers is regrettably low.””All we can do is to encourage them to improve their manners and behave calmly whatever fans may do.”Crowd trouble is a common problem in China’s Super league.Last month hooligans surrounded and damaged a car carrying China’s national head coach Zhu Guanghu after a league match in Xiamen, southeastern China.That match also involved Tianjin, who beat home team Xiamen 2-1.”It is obvious that our fans can behave in a pretty unreasonable way, resulting in some unfortunate incidents,” said Lang.Nampa-AFP