Chinese soccer commentators fired for thanking Covid-19 for infecting rival Super League player
- Clip shared online showed pair joking about Henan Jianye’s Christian Bassogog being put out of action by coronavirus
- Former international Wang Peng and colleague Guo Yifei were previewing fixture for Dalian Pro supporters
Two Chinese soccer commentators have been fired after posting a video thanking Covid-19 for infecting one of the opposing team’s star players.
The pair were speaking ahead of Friday night’s Chinese Super League match between Dalian Pro and Henan Jianye.
Guo Yifei, a sports commentator working for Dalian TV, the main network in the northeastern city, uploaded a now-deleted video on the video platform Douyin in which he previewed the game with former Chinese international Wang Peng.
Guo noted that Henan’s star striker, Cameroonian forward Christian Bassogog, was not playing because he was receiving treatment in a hospital in the southern city of Guangzhou after testing positive for Covid-19.
Clearly happy for his hometown team, he then chuckled and said “it seems [Bassogog] won’t be coming back”. Wang replied “thank you Covid-19”.
The video went viral on Douyin quickly as well as social media platform Weibo, where the hashtag “Dalian Commentator Says Thank You Covid-19” racked up nearly 30 million hits.