CCTV-5, which owns 85 percent of China's television sports market, cancelled plans to show the Chinese national team in action against Japan in the East Asian Championship game on Saturday evening and instead showed a long-running European game show Jeux Sans Frontier.

On Sunday's sports news, CCTV-5 did not even mention the result -- a 0-0 tie -- and it has no plans to cover any of China's other games at the tournament. The move is seen as a reaction against Chinese soccer, which is mired in a match-fixing scandal. China is also struggling on the field. The tie extended its winless streak against Japan to 12 games.

"CCTV is really considerate," a Beijing fan commented on sina.com. "It's getting close to the traditional New Year holiday, and the station would not like the poor performance of the national soccer team to ruin the festive mood of the Chinese people."