A Chinese sports commentator has been forced to apologise after letting his passion for Italian footnall become obvious during the Azzurri's World Cup match against Australia on Monday.
After 90 minutes in which he repeatedly referred to Italy's "great football tradition" and dismissed Australia as "useless", Huang Jianxiang lost his head when his heroes scored in injury time.
"Gooooal! Victory goes to the great Italy! Long live Italy!" he shouted happily into the microphone. Italy's goal, the only one of the match, came from a penalty which was awarded when Fabio Grosso fell to the ground after fighting his way to within a few metres of the Australian goal.
Although many observers - even in Italy - questioned whether a penalty should have been given, Huang Jianxiang had no doubts and made this clear to Chinese football fans watching the match on state TV.
"Penalty! Penalty! Penalty!" he yelled excitedly as soon as the Italian player hit the turf. "Grosso's done it! Grosso represents the great tradition of Italian football and at this moment he's not alone."
The pro-Italian commentary sparked a barrage of complaints and a lively discussion on a popular Chinese website. There was also criticism in the press the following day. In the cold light of day, Huang admitted he had overstepped the mark.
"After watching the recording the morning after the match I think my commentary contained too many personal feelings, which is not good. I apologise humbly to the viewers for offending their feelings," he said in a statement published by Chinese state TV.
He added that he closely followed Italy's football championship for many years and had been unable to hide his "special" feelings for the country's players.
Huang demonstrated his detailed knowledge of previous Italian World Cup teams several times during his match commentary. One of his exultant remarks after Italy's goal was: "Happy birthday Maldini!" - a reference to ex-Italy defender Paolo Maldini, who happened to be celebrating his 38th birthday on Monday.
