China’s General Administration of Sports on Tuesday published a series of guidelines to “strengthen the management of football players”, among which is a ban on members of the national team from getting new tattooscollect today local media The Paper.

Guidelines aims to make footballers become “positive example for society” and they recommend those who already have tattoos to have them removed, in addition to banning the Under-20s and lower teams from calling players with tattooed bodies.

This isn’t the first time tattoos have caused controversy in Chinese football: in the 2018 China Cup, many players had to cover their tattoos with bandages.

In the official photos of the Chinese team components, tattoos like those worn on the arms of Chinese players such as Zhang Xizhe or Zhang Linpeng has been removed with image retouching programs on several occasions.

The administration also adds in its guidelines the organization of “ideological and political education” activities in the national team to strengthen the players’ “patriotic education”.

Without qualifying for the World Cup since 2002

Chinese soccer team reaps another failure this year almost no chance of qualifying for the 2022 World Cup in Qatarin poor form which led to the resignation of his coach, Li Tie.

China have not qualified for the World Cup since the 2002 World Cups in Korea and Japan, with China not having to face local powers South Korea and Japan as they have already qualified as hosts.

Despite the government’s efforts to raise the level of football in the country, The national team continues to reap bad results and strong criticism from fans.

For this reason, some netizens on the Weibo social network criticized the tattoo ban: “They don’t take responsibility for what they should be responsible for, they do unimportant things to show that they are doing something”a user’s comment.

Others, on the other hand, supported the move: “In East Asian society, we have always rejected tattoos” or “we have to protect the next generation,” said two commentators. (I)