Olympique Lyon and Nantes played their previous Ligue 1 match in a time that both are not familiar with, Saturday at 1:30 PM.
This midday hour was not chosen due to security reasons or issues with the local broadcasters. It was to allow Chinese viewers to watch the match, played at 7:30 PM in Beijing time - but it created a massive objection by some fans.
While the French try to get closer to the Chinese market, Lyon fans felt that they were left behind. The league decided to choose the money from Asia instead of the local fans' interests. Therefore, Lyon fans decided to make their protest. Before the match, they made a tifo of the Tibet flag, accompanied by a banner with the words "Free Tibet" on it. The protest became viral, and pictures of it were spread all over the internet. Once again, its the conflict between fans and money, now with a bit of politics behind.
It became a typical sight to see leagues rescheduling matches to the early afternoon hours. One of the reasons for this is the rising popularity of football in Asia. League boards are aware of these markets' size potential, so no one would like to be left behind.
La Liga was the first to do so in 2017, adding a fixture slot on Sundays at 1:00 PM. Major matches, such as Real Madrid against Barcelona, were played on earlier hours to fit with the local time in East Asia. Serie A later joined them, with a slot on Sunday at 12:30.
The ties between France and Asia, and especially with China, are just getting stronger. In 2018, Ligue 1 has expanded its rights deal with CCTV, the Chinese national broadcast, until 2021. The LFP, who runs the top 2 tiers in France, decided to open an office in Beijing as part of a strategic plan to increase the cooperation between the countries.
These moves raise a question - do the leagues favour broader markets instead of caring about the domestic market? Bad Gones, the leading Lyon ultras group, published a Facebook post about the infamous tifo. "If the flag of Tibet can upset the league and the regime-ruled Chinese broadcaster, we will be happy to do it again," they said.
It's not the first time that Tibet flags are used for protests against cooperations with China. In 2017, the Chinese U-20 national team was supposed to hold a training camp in Germany, including playing matches against teams from the fourth division. After the first match was abandoned due to activists that raised Tibet flags, the following games were cancelled altogether.
In the next following weeks, there are no scheduled Ligue 1 matches in the early slots, but it's too soon to know if we wouldn't see more of these in later stages of the season. It seems that the decision-makers already made their choice, as they preferred the big money of Asia. Now the ball is in the fans' court. Should they keep their protests to keep football real? Would anyone help their voice be heard?