Flag Flap: Fans Ejected for Tibet Protest

By: Bob | June 11th, 2007

To me, one of the more interesting aspects on blogging about soccer is that it is a global sport that oftentimes touches upon serious issues like racism and politics. I know that this isn’t why most of you follow the sport, and it isn’t my primary reason either, but I do appreciate the fact that a game involving grown men in shorts kicking around a ball can occasionally lead to serious discussions about issues that are important. Well, that and it can also enable us to see serious videos featuring fine athletes.

In my journeys through the cyber universe today I couldn’t help but travel down a road that led to discussions of free speech and soccer. Ian on the Real Salt Lake Blog has the story of a group of fans who were booted from last week’s exhibition between China and Real Salt Lake because they were waving Tibet flags and using the match as a platform to protest against China. The Chinese players apparently were upset by this and refused to play until the Tibet flags were put away.

The same thing evidently happened in Colorado where fans were reportedly asked to leave because of their protests.

The irony of this happening in a country that proclaims to be the home of the free hasn’t been lost on anyone. You’d expect this to happen in China. You don’t expect this to happen in the United States. Just like I expected to wake up this morning and read about a bar fight involving soccer players (damn players are on their best behavior this year and not getting into enough fights) instead of reading about the legalities of protected speech at sporting events.

In my cyber travels I have read some reasoned arguments for why it was wrong for Real Salt Lake officials to eject the fans. I have read some reasoned arguments for why they had ever right to do so. I have also read some inflammatory comments, the type you’d expect to find given the anonymous nature of the Internet, from those on both sides of the issue.

In the end, my own sympathies lie with those waving the flags of Tibet. I believe in protecting political speech even if it means invading the bubble that is the soccer world and even if it makes others feel uncomfortable. It isn’t a black or white issue, but that is why I find it interesting and why I am willing to divert my mind from Lionel Messi’s handball goal and other on the field fun for a few moments to think about issues larger than 22 men on a pitch.

What are your thoughts on the issue?

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Category: MLS, World Football

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chuck

Instead of playing this game in China, where you can get kicked out of a game for waving a flag, they should have played this game in the United States, so people would be free to wave a flag if they wanted.
Lucas

Maybe instead of throwing them out of the stadium the people at Real Salt Lake should have run over the protesters with tanks or just machine gunned them in their seats? I mean, they're cowtowing to the Chinese to begin with, why not go all the way?

Here's what I wrote to the RSL officials (tfitz@realsaltlake.com, astafne@realsaltlake.com, tnelson@realsaltlake.com, schecketts@realsaltlake.com, dstack@realsaltlake.com)

"If what I have read is true, that you threw fans out of your stadium because they were waving Tibetan and Taiwanese flags, then you are the worst kind of scum and an embarrassment to the MLS, to the American people, and to this country and everything it stands for."
Ian

Both good points - I just think sports events are, on the whole, more positive for the way we deal with countries like this than negative. I agree with both of you, though, that we have allowed China to have their way internationally while not being strong enough in our disagreements with them.
wsc

ian - don't get me wrong, i think the way american diplomacy is carried out in the middle east is terribly misguided. i'm not saying we should shut china out, but rather that our transactions with them need not be free of disapproval of their policies. the u.s. government has been completely silent for decades on tibet (and other human rights issues) just to keep trade arrangements open, how are they supposed to even know that we disagree? (unless we don't. that's a sad thought.)
Tenzin

I am Tibetan American and strongly believe in the principles on which this nation is founded on. Some of the protesters have experienced Chinese brutality first hand in Tibet. The heavy handedness by the security is quite surprising. I do not think America have to appease China this much. Ian you are right. We all dream of China to be a civilized nation that respects human rights. But lets face it, it is still a wolf in sheep cloth. China is still a communist country that does not respect human rights to its own citizen much less Tibetans, Uighurs and inner mongolians. It has been more than two decades since we have implemented a proactive policy of appeasement and containment vis-a-vis China. But the giant has eaten up all the carrots and our stick has not impacted them at all. Instead we now have more than 230 billion dollar trade deficit with China. It has been nearly doubling every year for the last 4 years. (refer: yaleglobal.yale.edu/about/pdfs... irony of it all is that US economy has now become directly susceptible to a communist country. Talk about national security. If only the stick had been more robust.....
Ian

wsc - The one point that I would disagree with is your stance that sporting competition permits ongoing governmental abuse of power. We have seen over and over again that the way to successfully spread ideas of democracy is through cooperation and dialogue. Isolating those countries we disagree with is a profoundly wrong-headed way of dealing with them. It's the same technique we're currently using in Iraq - we disagree with Iran and Syria, and so we are ignoring the fact that we also have some goals in common with them. Personally, I would love to see the Iranian national football team tour the US, just as I enjoyed seeing the Chinese come to visit. When we isolate them and refuse to deal with them until they change their minds, we take ourselves, and the values we claim to stand for, out of the equation. That's not how you make positive change.

That being said, I think throwing them out was, indeed, a little much.
wsc

chicago, remember that this is america, "land of the free," but there are plenty of people here who aren't aware of the political situation in tibet. bringing the flags isn't an attack on the chinese national soccer team, it's an attempt to make people think of how "our" (the government's) relationships with the chinese government (including partaking in sporting events, no matter how fun or beneficial) silently permit the situation in tibet to continue. what other venue would you suggest, seeing as how friendlies against the chinese national team are thus an inherently political activity?
frost

Funny -- for a while I thought it was mandatory that each and every Volvo automobile must have a "free Tibet" bumper sticker or be severely chastised...
chicago millonario

I wasn't aware that the Chinese national football invaded Tibet.

Seems rather silly to use that venue as a means to protest. The players are there to play and we should let them, and any comments regarding their governments policies should be done at the appropriate time and place. I agree it's dumb to be asked to leave, but it's also kinda lame to bring a flag there to being with. Just my opinion.
Jillian

The Chinese players should have sucked it up. I wasn't there, so obviously I don't know exactly what was going on, but if those players can't handle some heckling and some flags that didn't agree with their/their government's stance, maybe they shouldn't have come here.

I'd completely understand if the fans were getting racist and/or violent, but this isn't a decent reason to ask someone to leave.