Another raw deal for Chinese fans as Friday fixture farce sees both Shanghai sides play home games on same night

Supporter interests are yet again ignored as Champions League commitments leads to bizarre kick off time a week after playing mid-afternoon on a workday

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Giovanni Moreno of Shanghai Shenhua in action against Sydney FC during their AFC Champions League group stage match. Photo: AFP

Published: 1:04pm, 16 Apr 2018Updated: 1:04pm, 16 Apr 2018

Chinese football is often mystifying and this weekend was no exception – but instead of the head-scratching punishments of the FA’s disciplinary committee, it was the schedulers who frustrated fans this time.

Two teams in the same city playing on the same night never usually happens anywhere, not even in China, but that changed when both of the Chinese Super League’s Shanghai sides played at home on Friday night.

Well, Friday evening for Shanghai Shenhua fans, whose game against champions Guangzhou Evergrande kicked off at 6pm on a workday – seeing as most people leave the office around that time it was not exactly fan friendly.

Shanghai SIPG kicked off their game against Hebei China Fortune in the normal Friday slot of 7.35pm, and the scheduling was rumoured to have been geared that way so the supporters of the rival second city sides would not cross paths.

It could reasonably be argued that Shenhua, the city’s more established and better supported club among local Shanghainese, deserved the later kick off although SIPG’s larger stadium means that more people would have had to brave rush hour had they kicked off earlier.

The truth is that it needn’t have come to them playing on the same night anyway.

Another raw deal for Chinese fans as Friday fixture farce sees both Shanghai sides play home games on same night

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Supporter interests are yet again ignored as Champions League commitments leads to bizarre kick off time a week after playing mid-afternoon on a workday

Supporter interests are yet again ignored as Champions League commitments leads to bizarre kick off time a week after playing mid-afternoon on a workday