Chelsea could be BANNED from China after Kenedy’s social media posts spark outrage
Reports claim Ministry of Foreign Affairs are 'closely monitoring the situation' after Instagram controversy
CHELSEA could be sensationally BANNED from China after Kenedy’s insensitive Instagram posts, according to reports.
The Brazilian was reprimanded by the club after his insensitive posts caused outrage in the Far East and he was booed during the 3-0 victory over Arsenal in Beijing on Saturday.
And things could be about to get worse.
claim that the club could receive an outright ban from the country due to the star’s actions.
Sources have also claimed that the government has ordered Chinese media to “withdraw all related stories about Chelsea from their dual homepages and news apps".
The Blues confirmed that Kenedy had been “disciplined” for the posts that caused outrage.
The 21-year-old quickly posted an apology and deleted the guilty ones, while the West London outfit issued apologised via their Chinese media platforms.
The club statement said: "On July 22nd, Chelsea Football Club experienced the warmth and friendliness of Chinese fans at the National Stadium.
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"However, we were surprised and disappointed that one day prior to the match, one of our young players, Kenedy, posted messages on his social media account that caused great offence and hurt the feelings of the people of China.
"Unfortunately, even though he quickly deleted the messages and apologised, and the club also apologised via our Chinese social media channels, the damage had already been done. Chelsea Football Club once again solemnly and sincerely apologises.
"Kenedy's actions were a mistake that he will learn greatly from. His behaviour does not represent the entire team and does not align with the club's high expectations and strict requirements of its young players.
"He has been strongly reprimanded and disciplined.
"Everyone at Chelsea Football Club has the utmost respect and admiration for China and loves our Chinese fans. It is because of this that the negative impact we have seen over the last two days has left us shocked and saddened. Once again, we sincerely apologise for the hurt caused to our Chinese fans as well as to the Chinese people.
"The match was a great cultural exchange event between China and Britain and the club is extremely grateful to China for its hospitality, which has brought us closer together in friendship. We very much hope to build on our strong relationship with our Chinese fans and friends, joining hands firmly with China in future for further cooperation
"We offer this apology with utmost sincerity. We have listened carefully to the criticism and will use the lessons learnt over the last two days to improve our processes in future."
The flagship newspaper of the Communist Party of China, The People’s Daily, published a harshly-worded article following the Blues’ first short apology on Weibo.
It read: “Best to keep your mouth shut, you troublemakers. If you do not learn to respect others, you will never earn the respect yourself.
“Kenedy is still defending himself in his apology, and Chelsea’s statement is perfunctory to say the least.
“The hospitable Chinese people don’t welcome such guest. As such Chelsea will be treated as a 'persona non grata' in the future.”
Chelsea are now in Singapore preparing to take on Bayern Munich, where £65m new boy Alvaro Morata will make his debut, tomorrow before facing Inter Milan at the same place on Saturday.
