An NBA-style scenario with China threatens Mbappe and Real Madrid with the loss of hundreds of millions
The controversy between Real Madrid star Kylian Mbappé and China has spilled well beyond football, dragging back into focus the fallout that can follow when a sporting competition picks a fight with the Asian giant.
According to Sport newspaper, Chinese state television pulled its broadcast of La Liga matches after Mbappé commented on a satirical image that superimposed his face onto a picture of Chinese leader Mao Zedong, without naming him explicitly.
The player, the Spanish league and Real Madrid all rushed to apologise, fearful of a crisis that could inflict heavy financial losses on all three.
In recent days, observers have drawn parallels with a strikingly similar episode that hit the American basketball league years ago.
Back in October 2019, Daryl Morey, then general manager of the Houston Rockets, posted a message on Twitter backing the protests in Hong Kong. "Fight for freedom. Stand with Hong Kong," he wrote.
Morey deleted the message soon after. The reaction was instant. The Chinese Basketball Association, led by former player Yao Ming, suspended its cooperation with the Rockets, one of the most popular clubs in the country, largely thanks to the years Yao spent in Houston.
From there the crisis spread fast. Chinese state television dropped the league's matches from its schedule and several companies suspended their commercial deals. The league suddenly faced a huge problem in one of its most important international markets.
Hundreds of millions at stake
The financial blow was severe. In February 2020, league commissioner Adam Silver estimated the confrontation could cost the competition hundreds of millions of dollars, though he put the expected losses below 400 million dollars. The league lost 200 million dollars during 2019 alone once the crisis erupted.
Silver defended Morey's right to free expression despite the commercial damage it caused. Meanwhile, the television boycott dragged on. Chinese television made one exception, broadcasting a single match from the 2020 finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Miami Heat, but regular coverage of matches did not return until 2022.
Lost broadcasts were only part of it. The Houston Rockets forfeited around 20 million dollars when commercial deals were cancelled, and the league was forced to lower its projections for the growth of the salary cap because of the dispute with China.
It was a blow felt by clubs and players alike, laying bare just how reliant the competition had become on the Asian market.
Relations have slowly rebuilt since then. This October, the Houston Rockets and the Dallas Mavericks played two pre-season games in Macau, a sign of how hard the league has worked to mend ties with the Chinese market.
Now the fallout has reached Mbappé and Spanish football. On top of the television blackout, several Chinese brands have ended their agreements with the French star.
The American basketball league needed several years to get its relationship with China back to normal. It stands as a precedent for the damage a single crisis can leave on an entire sporting competition.
