China’s state broadcaster keeps La Liga off air as Real Madrid and Mbappe remain absent

China’s state television broadcaster has continued its suspension of La Liga coverage, leaving matches involving Real Madrid and France forward Kylian Mbappe absent from its schedules amid an ongoing dispute over comments linked to Mao Zedong.

China Central Television (CCTV) showed no La Liga match on Saturday, having stopped broadcasting the competition on Monday. Digital platform Migu, however, continued to provide coverage of most of the weekend’s fixtures.

According to Spanish newspaper Marca, CCTV did not list any of the matches scheduled for Friday and Saturday: Villarreal v Espanyol, Levante v Atletico de Madrid, Rayo Vallecano v Celta Vigo, Real Betis v Malaga and Barcelona v Alaves.

The broadcaster’s official schedule also excluded Sunday evening and early Monday fixtures in local time, including Getafe v Sevilla, Racing Santander v Real Madrid, Elche v Valencia, Athletic Bilbao v Real Sociedad and Monday’s match between Deportivo La Coruna and Osasuna.

CCTV’s mobile application still carries some matches from rounds played before the suspension. The most recent available fixture is Celta Vigo’s meeting with Real Betis on Sunday, 25 October.

Records show that CCTV normally broadcasts one or two La Liga matches per round. However, the Spanish news agency found no Real Madrid match in its archive from either the current season or the 2025-2026 campaign.

Real Madrid missing from Migu schedules

Migu, La Liga’s exclusive digital broadcast partner in China from the start of the current season until 2029-2030, has retained an almost complete schedule of weekend matches.

The apparent exception is Racing Santander v Real Madrid, which has not appeared on the platform’s fixture list.

Migu also does not show Real Madrid matches from rounds played before the dispute began. A review of its August and September listings found no Madrid fixtures, while results from other games, match highlights and full-match replays remain available.

Social media users said at the start of the dispute that Migu had removed clips of Mbappe’s goals from Real Madrid’s most recent El Clasico against Barcelona.

The dispute began after Mbappe said in a media interview that one of his favourite satirical images showed his face superimposed on the image of a “Chinese leader”. He did not name Mao Zedong, although Mao’s image appeared in the design.

The comments on Tuesday led several Chinese companies to terminate commercial agreements. CCTV also suspended La Liga broadcasts and matches involving Mbappe, while advertisements featuring the forward were taken off air.

Mbappe apologised in French, Chinese and English. La Liga expressed regret over the incident, and its president Javier Tebas wrote to China Media Group (CMG), the organisation responsible for CCTV.

The state media organisation said on Wednesday that it had received, through La Liga, a message in which Real Madrid joined the apology and expressed respect for China. It did not say whether the statement was considered sufficient or announce when broadcasts would resume.

China’s foreign ministry also declined at the time to clarify the future of the measures involving Mbappe and La Liga.