Henan Football Riot, A Collection of Internet Reactions

On August 18 after their home team, the Henan Construction football club, lost 0-2 against the visiting Jiangsu Sainty football club, a large number of football fans voiced their dissatisfaction with their team by spontaneously rallying together to protest “Resign, Yang Nan!”; these fans were demanding that Yang Nan, the general manager of the Henan Construction football team, step down. Eventually riot police was called in to quell the protest, at which point the incident became violent with a number of injuries as a result.

Though the official news report totals the number of injuries at 10, all not serious, a dissenting opinion of the severity of the incident can be found on the internet.  There, photographs and videos from the riot depict an aftermath in which a great number of football fans with serious injuries are seen with bloody wounds; as well, a chaotic confrontation is depicted at the stadium in which puddles of blood are seen on the floor.  Some pictures even depict football fans that have been rendered incapacitated by some means.

While the official report lists the motivation for this riot as fans’ dissatisfaction with the football team instigated by “hooligans” into becoming a riot, some Chinese netizens reason that because this incident occured in Henan province then the Henanese people themselves are to be blamed, writing comments that describe the Henan people are being “low-class” and “swindlers”, to the effect of describing them as getting what they deserve.

This incident of Henan football fans instanteously mass protesting occurs against a backdrop of a Chinese football league that has continually suffered scandal after scandal.  Last November, arrests of top officials of the Guangzhou Yiyao football club were made, including its general manager, allegely involving match-fixing.  Earlier this year it was revealed that Chinese players pay large bribes in order to participate in the national team’s training camp, and pay even more exorbitant amounts to compete in international matches.  Most shameful could be China’s 2008 Olympics in which its national team, nicknamed the “guo zhu” (“national pigs”), shamed the country with a poor performance and a sex scandal.

Previous cases of football hooliganism in China have been associated with allegations of match-fixing and corrupt refereeing.  In 2002, Shanxi Guoli football fans rioted in a Xian home game after a late penalty was awarded to the visiting Qingdao Yizhong team.  Again in Xian, Shanxi Guoli fans had earlier rioted with police in 2000 who at the time were trying to prevent them from attacking the referee.  Just recently, a lone female football fan was photographed charging the field and attacking the referee and linesmen.

The following translated content represents a smattering of responses to the Henan incident and the differing perspectives they each individually represent:

From NetEase, Sohu, Sina, & ifeng:

Henan Football Attack Police With Fire Extinguishers; Reporter: They Are Football Hooligans

On the night 18th, Henan football fans broke out in a riot, an incident that shocked the Henan Construction football club. Henan Construction club general manager Yang Nan said, “I hope that football fans that accidentally received injuries can recover quickly to full health, just as I hope that football fans that support us can rationally accept the outcome of games, be they win or lose, in order to safeguard the good image of Henan football.

Last night, this reporter from the Jing newspaper made a telephone interview with a Henan reporter who was witness to the riot at the time. He relates: “Out of its recent five games, Henan Construction football club has just one tie and four losses to its credit, and this has dissatisfied fans. On the night of the 18th, Henan Construction football construction lost at home 0:2 against the Jiangsu Sainty football club. Some one thousand football fans laid siege to the east hall of the Hanghai stadium after the match and loudly cried out for Yang Nan and Tang Yaodong (head coach of the Henan Construction football club) to resign. These fans all thought that the club’s recent lack of success on the pitch was due to the fact that the club was not willing to take out money to attract new talent on the team. After shouting their slogans, these fans began to push at the glass doors of the stadium’s east hall, and there was someone carrying a fire extinguisher spraying the police, using the aluminum pipe to attack the police. These people weren’t football fans, they were football hooligans.

This Henan reporter told this Jing newspaper reporter that the police were relatively restrained in the process of maintaining order during this incident; the police maintained their ground at the stadium east hall where they used riot shields to obstruct the entrance in order to prevent fans with extremist attitudes from swarming in. A group of football fans then broke the glass to the gate in the east hall. Another group of fans outside the stadium burned their posters and team jerseys, and destroyed the drums they had brought to raise morale during the game. There were even football fans who set fire to the Hanghai Stadium security guard room that was property of the Construction club, destroying the televisions, searchlights, and other appliances within.

Zhengzhou police immediately requisitioned large numbers of riot squad police from the city center to come help. After one intense confrontation, the riot squad established control over the stadium’s east hall. During this process, approximately ten football fans suffered varying degrees of minor injuries; as well, some security personnel and police were attacked with rocks. Football stadium personnel immediately dialed 120 for emergency services, to which fans who had received injuries were promptly given medical treatment. Refusing to budge until late last night, it was only until it began heavily raining in Zhengzhou did these football fans gradually disperse.

Regarding this violent incident, Construction football club general manager Yang Nan is deeply distressed, saying, “At that time I was not at the scene of the incident, and don’t understand the situation at the club. I hope that the Construction football club fans can together create a beautiful future for Henan football. This incident shouldn’t influence the Construction football club’s China Super League qualifications, just as it shouldn’t influence the national team coming to Zhengzhou to compete in September.”

Original Article Source: Shenzhen News Net

Author: Wu Bang

Comments from Sohu:

搜狐手机网友:

Crooked your fucking head. It was the some football fans who were in the wrong, and all the injuries were caused by certain football fans. I myself almost got hurt too.

搜狐手机网友:

Crooked eggs of your mother! A bunch of football holligans looking for any opportunity to cause trouble, stop give “football fans” a bad name.

搜狐手机网友:

50 cent reporter, you are distorting the truth. When the police charged in, they beat whoever they saw, not distinguishing between male or female, old or young, and yet you say they were “relatively restrained”? I don’t blame you for not being there, and I can even forgive you for wanting to reprint/repost something just earn money, but when you blindly and recklessly fabricate, then you’re a SB.

搜狐手机网友:

Seeing this kind of report really shocks me. Don’t be a gunman [attacking something on behalf of someone else], okay? One must behave conscientiously. And what was that about asking/interviewing a Henan reporter? Why didn’t you ask/interview me? I was there too.

搜狐手机网友:

Distortion of facts!

Below, a video slideshow of a photographs from the Henan football incident, all of which have the watermark identifying them as being from osports.cn, a popular Chinese football portal. Photos show various stages and perspectives of the incidents, from behind police lines facing the congregated fans to the apprehension of individuals using physical force to the aftermath which shows several victims with bloody wounds:

Text seen at the beginning of the video:

On August 18th, 2010

Henan football

The wound that will last forever

The lead roles in history are no longer about the two football team members that bring both gratitude and resentment, both love and hate, but instead are about its very own home playing field (Hanghai stadium)

A sudden rush of bloodshed

Hanghai stadium special police versus Hanghai stadium football fans

…

!!!

This video doesn’t have any commentary about the incident itself, it only wants to broadcast pictures taken live at the actual scene, please don’t scrutinize me or human flesh search engine me

Henan football, jiayou!

Text at the end of video:

(Screenshot of a post on Baidu)Title: This incident already happened 24 hours ago, unexpectedly they even haven’t made their own stance clear

Have all the club members died yet?

Henan football, please be a credit (to us, yourselves)

This is my first time using “movie maker”, if there is any place I’ve gone wrong, please excuse it

Please, for the sake of Henan football I’d like ask you to support this post

Henan football club, jiayou!

A video from outside the stadium in which the football fans gain entrance to the stadium and begin to pour inside. A few call for resignation can be heard. Later, the camera pans around to give a view of the hundreds of football fans watching and waiting for something to happen. Security personnel are seen but not engaging the crowd:

A video of a mob of Chinese football fans continually chanting “杨楠下课！” in which Yang Nan, the general manager of the Henan Construction football club, is demanded by the crowd to resign. The fans have congregated inside the stadium hall just outside the entrance to the viewing stands/football playing field which is guarded by police with riot shields and steel batons:

A combination video that puts together live video of football fans protesting as well as a video slide show of pictures. Text and music is shown throughout:

Text shown at beginning of the video:

August 18, young martyrs who have perished at the Henan football incident

Henan football would rather go without than to be with something mediocre [referring to respect, fans, face]

Henan Construction football club should withdraw from the Chinese Super League (professional league of football in China)

August 18, the day of disgrace for Henan football!

[Henan] Construction football club, get lost!

Yang Nan, get lost!

On August 18, the Henan Construction football club lost 0-2 at home to the superior Jiangsu Sainty football club. Afterwards, unsatisfied football fans gathered at the east entrance of the arena and loudly cried out the slogan “Yang Nan, resign!” Those that have come to unburden themselves of this anger in their hearts only verifies that the club did not act with righteous indignation!

All the football fans just wanted is to get a rational explanation from the club management about its success rate, and never were they excessive with their demands. And though some members of the football club aren’t fulfilling their duties well enough to satisfy the vast majority of fans, the hoarse and loud cries from football fans have been met with cold indifference from the football club.

Text shown above the video:

In the great hall could be heard the cries of “Resign, Yang Nan!”

Cries of “Resign, Yang Nan!” are nonstop!

As well, a few not reputable branches of media claim that there were cries of “Resign, Tang Yaodong!” as well!

Everybody crying out loud until hoarse were only met with cold indifference from the football club.

This text proceeds the next section of a video slideshow of the police response and the injuries incurred afterwards:

At this time unexpected things began to happen in front of me! The security personal, all wielding steel batons in their hands, suddenly advanced upon us…

What happened next you will see for yourself…

At the very end of the video:

They didn’t just damage the bodies of these football fans, they also damaged the passionate feelings that the fans once had for the football club!

Severe punishments for the assailants!

Resign, Yang Nan!

Boycott Henan Construction football club

A very chaotic video that eventually shows the riot police guarding the entrance to the stadium as seen in other videos, but has many closeups of a single bloodied woman’s shoe left behind beside a large puddle of what appears to be blood:

Video of a football fan burning a Henan Construction football club flag:

A news report:

Comments from NetEase:

网易浙江杭州网友:

After carefully looking through every single photo, one sentence can be used to summarize this: “What the football fans were breaking was a door, while what the police were breaking were people!

网易火星网友:

“The spring wind of youth may blow unto spectators to the point of drunkenness, but do not take Hangzhou [one of the most prettiest and desirable cities to live in China] for Bianzhou [Henan].” You don’t have to attack one another. There is no meaning in this just as we can’t say for sure about anything. Getting to the bottom of every wish or desire is not the way of the Henan people.

网易河南南阳网友:

This is still better than Song Shanmu and that cheap B-tier Shandong garbage!

网易辽宁大连网友:

Wherever a Henan person goes, is wherever the peace is disturbed.

网易广东韶关网友:

Shandong people are dogs and we don’t lower ourselves to the level of a dog. Stupid cunt Shandong dog.

网易辽宁大连网友:

The police special forces are truly brave!!! And ferocious!!! And admirable!!!

网易河南新乡网友:

There are good people and bad people everywhere, don’t be so extreme with your words. Is a person good just because they curse Henan people?

网易辽宁沈阳网友:

Artificial people created by The Empire of the Heavenly Kingdom [China], no need to be surprised.

网易辽宁大连网友:

Initially, the riot police were very aggressive, but upon seeing how many people there were on the other side, they immediately backed off.

网易广东清远网友:

Low class, lots of cheats/swindlers, dogs biting dogs. [Low class people fighting low class people.]

网易辽宁营口网友:

Don’t take a small minority of people to represent an entire area’s people. I have encountered a lot of provinces’ people, and the majority of them are good people. I’ve never felt any place was particularly bad. Examine your own conscience and really think it over: of these football team players, which of them do you have a good opinion of? And then think about whether your own football playing has encountered any conflict; this is normal. I know a lot of people and some of them have never met many Henan, Shandong, or Shanghai people and yet they have bad impressions of the people from these places. So I am puzzled. What place doesn’t have people of low/poor characters? I myself have people around me that I cannot stand. When I make friends, look at people, I never care where they are from. Of course, Japanese people are the exception, because they are influenced by their national education system, which does not respect the truth.

网易山东潍坊网友:

That’s right! Even in a village the good-hearted people are separated from the tyrants! Nevermind a country this big! Some people go online and immediately, “XX province’s people are like this, XX province’s people are like that!” The main thing is that these types of posts are always at the top [of the discussion forums], never sinking down, so depressing.

Football fans and hooligans. chinaSMACK personals.