Blowing a whistle on four-letter football

The media on the mainland have engaged in what appears a mission impossible, by mounting a civic campaign to purge the football field of foul language.

Chinese Soccer magazine, for instance, last week made a blistering attack on football fans in Beijing for excessive swearing during matches.

Entitled 'Beijing cursing: Who are cursed?', the commentary observed that the Beijing Workers' Stadium was often drowned in expletives, even when the home team had the ball.

'What is worse,' it warned, 'is when television stations relay the matches live. The sound and images of Beijing cursing is relayed via satellite. It is like throwing a basin of filthy water at the faces of millions at home in China, Asia and even the entire world.' STAR TV's Sports Channel has been offering live coverage of selected matches of the Chinese National Football League.

The disappointing performance of Beijing National Security last season, in particular, has become a source of frustration. In April, the team lost 5-0 to Korean Tristar in the semi-finals of the Asian Clubs' Championship in Saudi Arabia. Soccer zealots in Beijing have vented their spleen on chief coach Shen Xiangfu. He was said to have felt so insulted he contemplated quitting his job.

Sociologists claim one of the social functions of spectator sports is to offer a proper channel for people to unleash their energies and emotions. Vulgar outbursts during matches are accepted as the norm rather rejected as taboo.

As Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw once put it: 'The only civilised way of preventing men from kicking and beating their wives is to organise games in which they can kick and beat balls.' The Chinese Government, however, is eager to impose a higher moral standard on fans. According to the deputy chairman of the State Sports Commission, Zhang Faqiang, behaviour at soccer matches is regarded as 'government behaviour' on the mainland.