The Chinese U20 football team on Nov. 24 "suspended its stint in a German regional league in the fallout of a row over Tibetan flags displayed by activists" a week earlier during a match with TSV Schott Mainz in the first of 16 planned friendly games, according to Jens Kastner of the SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST. The game was halted for half an hour because the U20 side "refused to continue," only agreeing to resume after the protesters removed the offending flags. The tour is part of a Sino-German football treaty signed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong in November last year. The agreement "laid the groundwork for closer cooperation" between the two countries’ FAs and their clubs, and allowed China to "pay for experts" from Germany’s Bundesliga to "help improve its national team and help develop its Chinese Super League." Although the German FA’s (DFB) refusal to forbid Tibetan flags during the U20 games "earned it a harsh condemnation" from China’s foreign ministry, in a statement explaining the U20 project’s suspension, the DFB "stressed its confidence" that the "excellent relationship" with the Chinese FA will be furthered "regardless of the latest setback." The statement "masked the fact that the project and the German-China football treaty had been highly controversial in Germany in the first place," albeit for reasons "completely unrelated to Tibet." China has been "investing heavily" in European clubs in recent years but not in Germany "owing to restrictive ownership rules," and German fans "firmly" believe that foreign investors have not benefited football culture in the U.K., France, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy. The U20 project was perceived in some quarters as the DFB beginning to "open up German football to hostile foreign money" (SCMP, 11/28).
