Mao Zedong controversy: After LaLiga, Mbappé may be absent from Chinese Champions League broadcasts

A week after China’s state broadcaster suspended LaLiga, the Champions League match between Kylian Mbappé’s Real Madrid and AEK Athens, played in Greece on November 4, 2026, was absent from the announced iQIYI Sports schedule. The platform holds the competition’s broadcast rights in China, and its schedule listed matches involving other Spanish clubs that day. Neither iQIYI nor China Media Group had announced a decision, and a scheduling omission or late update remained possible. The controversy followed an interview in which Mbappé reportedly named as his favorite meme an image replacing Mao Zedong’s face with his own and called the Chinese leader a “dictator.”