Arsenal's Mesut Ozil Seemingly Blacklisted By Chinese Broadcasts

Arsenal MF Mesut Ozil is "facing a permanent blacklisting in China" to such an extent that TV commentators are "deliberately not mentioning his name during broadcasts" of the EPL club's matches. Ozil played a "starring role" in Arsenal’s 2-0 victory over ManU last week but the commentators on the PPTV streaming channel "did not mention his name once." Observers of Chinese soccer say that Ozil will be "blanked for ever, with his name not even mentioned when he scores." Users of online fans’ forums in China say Ozil has been 404’d -- a "reference to the Google error message 404." State broadcaster CCTV has not shown an Arsenal match since Ozil’s criticism on Dec. 13 (LONDON TIMES, 1/10).