China soccer riots make news

The China riots come ahead of the World Cup in South Korea this year

BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- China's usually muzzled state newspapers has given blanket coverage to a riot by soccer fans, in a rare disclosure of public unrest that highlights the relative freedoms given to sports media.

China, where virtually all media are state-owned, keeps a tight reign over reporting of public displays of mass discontent. Ongoing protests by tens of thousands of laid-off workers in China's northeastern "rust belt" have been subject to a local news blackout.

But the day after soccer fans torched a police van and set fire to Xi'an soccer stadium in response to a contentious refereeing decision, newspapers published reports and photos of the riots.

Official press coverage of the flare-up graced the pages of the English-language China Daily and the Xinhua news agency's tabloid Sports Express, among others.

By contrast, state media steered clear of weeks of protests by disgruntled workers in the northeast cities of Liaoyang and Daqing.

While a local blackout remained in force -- Xi'an newspapers stayed quiet over the soccer riot after being warned not to make matters worse -- national media organizations gave their readers a fair helping of the mayhem.

Propaganda authorities called a meeting of Xi'an media on Sunday evening and told editors to "be careful" in their coverage of the incident, an editor who attended the meeting told Reuters.

Match-fixing fuels anger

In Sunday's first division match between Shaanxi's Lijun Guoli and Qingdao's Yizhong, fans reacted violently to the referee's decision to award a late penalty to Qingdao. Qingdao scored from the penalty spot and the game ended in a 3-3 draw.

Angry fans screamed abuse and accused the referee of match-fixing, before setting fire to the stadium seats sending plumes of black smoke from the stadium, witnesses told Reuters.

Police said they used high-pressure fire hoses and batons to disperse the fans.

"Shouts of 'Black whistle! Black whistle!' shook the heavens and earth," said the Xinhua Sports Express, in reference to the Chinese expression for match-fixing that gained notoriety in a huge scandal involving five second Division teams last year.

The newspaper showed a photo of Yizhong's Jiang Feng with a laceration and described a chaotic scene of fans tossing debris, climbing atop police vans and eluding policemen.

After police emptied the stadium of rioting fans, fresh fights broke out in the streets outside the stadium, climaxing in the torching of a police van. Fans hurled bricks and stones until the stand-off subsided more than three hours after the match ended, the paper said.

Police declined to comment on the trouble. It was the second incidence of soccer violence to have rocked Xi'an in the last two years.

Shaanxi Guoli fans also rioted in 2000 over a disputed penalty, prompting officials to fine the team and bar them from playing home games for the rest of the season.

Tens of thousands of Chinese fans are expected to travel to South Korea for the 2002 World Cup starting on May 31.