Chinese Football Association to ban tattoo from players: report

Tattoo ban for Chinese soccer players: report

Chinese soccer players might have been ordered to conceal their tattoos, media reported, after China's national team players were seen covering them at televised matches.

The Chinese Football Association will issue regulations on tattoos for the Chinese Super League and other national team matches, news site thepaper.cn reported Sunday.

Players were spotted covering their tattoos with tape during the games of China's U23 national team against Syria on Saturday and national team Wales on Thursday, thepaper.cn reported.

However, covering tattoos seemed to hardly change the fate of the Chinese team, which lost to Wales, 0-6.

"I dislike any form of dyed hair or tattoos," Jia Xiuquan, head coach of China's U19 team was quoted by thepaper.cn as saying. "Any team player who wants to be selected to the next match should wash their tattoos and the color of their hair. They should focus on the game rather than their image or appearance."

The prediction that the association would ban players from getting tattoos has triggered a heated discussion among soccer enthusiasts on the internet, where most netizens think it is not necessary to ban such private behavior.

Banning tattoos "has nothing to do with the players' abilities on the field, but there is nothing to be said against rectifying the atmosphere in football teams," Liu Xiaoxin, chief editor of the Guangzhou-based newspaper Soccer News, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Artists who have tattoos are not allowed on TV shows, Shanxi Evening News reported, citing Gao Changli, director of the publicity department of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio Film and Television. Chinese singer Dou Jingtong was seen covering up her jaw-to-neck tattoo on a TV show last year.

"Since the matches will be aired on television, I think it is good to cover the tattoos since there is a large young audience," Gao Liao, a football fan in Beijing, told the Global Times on Sunday.