Mesut Özil, who plays for Arsenal, is going to be taken out of PES 2020 in China, following his criticisms of the way the Chinese government has treated Muslim immigrants (via Eurogamer).
The game’s publisher in China, NetEase, put out a statement explaining the star’s removal from the game on Weibo, a social media platform (via The Independent). “The speech hurt the feelings of Chinese fans and violated the sports spirit of love and peace. We do not understand, accept or forgive this!”
Özil made comments criticising the mass detention centres in China that house Muslim immigrants, and China’s foreign ministry responded by saying that Özil had been “blindfolded by fake news.”
The news came about when, last month, the association press released a series of documents that go into detail on the way that the camps are being operated, which you can read here.
China has been the repeated subject of controversy in the video game world recently, with Blizzard becoming embroiled in recent months, after esports player Blitzchung spoke out in favour of protestors in Hong Kong.
