On August 18, a video of Xie Hui, a former international footballer and now the head coach of the Nantong Zhiyun team in the Central League, who made a drunken slip of the tongue, quickly became popular on the Internet, and the Nantong Zhiyun team then announced that it was suspending Xie Hui's position as head coach.
The incident, which originated when Xie Hui was filmed and uploaded on the internet after drinking at a private party for making inappropriate remarks, sparked widespread public concern and the former international footballer lost his coaching whip as a result, as the incident continues to fester.
Drunken blunders lead to career crisis
On the evening of August 17, Xie Hui and a few friends secretly get together, drunkenly expressed his views on China's professional soccer, involving Shanghai seaport, Shenhua and other Chinese Super League teams, as well as Chengdu Rongcheng, Nantong Zhiyun and other teams in the Central League, of which Nantong Zhiyun is his current owner.
Xie Hui's comments were unknowingly videotaped on a cell phone by someone at the same table, who was not his friend but someone who was temporarily invited to join the meal. After the video was uploaded to social media, it was quickly reposted and quoted in some of the self-published media, triggering a public opinion frenzy in just one day.
The Nantong Zhiyun team then released an official statement announcing that head coach Xie Hui was suspended from his head coaching position with immediate effect due to his drunken indiscretions at a private party.
Xie Hui himself quickly apologized publicly through social media platforms, he said: "Yesterday, I attended a friend's party and drank a lot of wine. I didn't realize that the opposite side of the people have ulterior motives, to secretly shoot, will be my drunken remarks sent to the Internet, and add oil and vinegar, seriously damage my reputation. I abhor such scum and reserve the right to take legal action! At the same time, I sincerely apologize to the units affected by my words (Chengdu Rongcheng, Shanghai Shenhua, Shanghai Harbour, Nantong Zhiyun)."
This incident has become a typical case of celebrity gaffe, and the spread of the Internet has quickly turned a minor incident into a public one.
Was a representative of the positive energy of our soccer
Xie Hui may be unfamiliar to young fans, but he was a "top" player in Chinese soccer 20 years ago.
Xie Hui's family background is also quite distinguished. His great-grandfather, Xie Yingrui, was a medical doctor who was sent to study in Germany during the foreign affairs movement in the late Qing Dynasty and obtained the only Chinese membership of the Royal Society of Medicine in the United Kingdom and served as an attending physician at the London Public Hospital. After the outbreak of the First World War, he became the chief surgeon at the British War Hospital. Fai Xie's great-grandmother was an English nurse. Xie Hui's grandfather, Steven Xie, is a legendary figure who was a member of the New Fourth Army and partly the prototype of Li Xia in the movie Never Fade Away.
A "half-breed" with one-eighth British blood, Xie Hui showed his soccer talent from an early age, making his debut with Shanghai Shenhua in 1995 at the age of 20, and became a famous player in the late 1990s in the First Division A. He was the second top scorer of Shanghai Shenhua in the 1995-1999 season.
In 2000, Xie Hui was transferred to Aachen in German Bundesliga, and became Aachen's top scorer in the 2001 season with 14 goals as a starter. 2001, the national soccer team played in the World Cup qualifying matches, and Xie Hui became the top scorer of the national soccer team by scoring 7 goals. However, Xie Hui was gradually marginalized by Milu in the ten-team tournament that year, and eventually fell out of the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup list amidst fierce competition.
As an iconic figure of China's men's soccer team, Xie Hui has played for the German Bundesliga team three times, and his strength is not for nothing. Fluent in English, Xie Hui has always been an icon in the Chinese soccer world with his excellent expression and handsome appearance.
After retiring in 2009, Xie Hui has been engaged in soccer club management and youth training in Shanghai, serving as assistant coach and press spokesman of Shanghai Shenhua, team manager of Shanghai Lucky Star Youth Football Club, and also served as research coach of the U16 national youth team.In 2015, Xie Hui joined the coaching team of the reserve team of Shanghai Harbour as a coach.From 2016 to 2019, Xie Hui served as the Assistant Coach of Shanghai Hong Kong's first team, assisting three foreign managers, Eriksson, Boaz and Pereira, to achieve the 2018 Chinese Super League Championship and 2019 Super Cup Championship.
Considered an outstanding coach of the domestic middle generation, Xie Hui made his debut as head coach of Nantong Zhiyun in the Central League since 2020, finishing in 12th place. So far this year, Xie Hui has led Nantong Zhiyun to a second-place finish in Group B of the first phase of the Central League. In a two-legged match against top-ranked Chengdu Rongcheng, Nantong Zhiyun lost by one goal, but the match was not a complete loss. Now, Nantong Zhiyun finished third in Group A in the just-concluded second phase of the Central League.
With Xie Hui's life, rich soccer career and "learning" persona in the coaching process in recent years, he should have been a rare representative of positive energy in Chinese soccer. But this time, Xie Hui's drunkenness, "too much to say", is indeed regrettable.
No generalizations should be made about Xie Hui
Xie Hui's content of this gaffe mainly centers on our professional league's tirade about inputs and results, expressing three main opinions:
One is that the accumulated investment of many clubs in recent years has amounted to tens of billions of dollars, especially Shanghai Harbour and Shenhua, etc. Citing his experience of working in the Harbour as an example, he pointed out that the Harbour had spent 12 billion dollars behind the scenes to win a Chinese Super League title.
Secondly, Chengdu Rongcheng invested 200 million in this year's Central League match and hired Korean foreign aid Seo Jung-won. And his Nantong Zhiyun only invested 10 million, but was able to press the other team to play.
Thirdly, all those high investment clubs don't know how to play football, and he wants to expose the truth about those who don't know how to play football.
In recent years, China's professional soccer "gold dollar soccer" phenomenon is not a secret, I believe many people know that Xie Hui is not false. Of course, such as "seaport 12 billion investment in exchange for a Super League champion" expression, in terms of numbers may not be accurate, but Xie Hui in the seaport work a few years, the club's specific operation is to understand. Some people speculate that the evaluation of Seaport may be the main reason why Xie Hui was suspended by Nantong Zhiyun.
As for Xie Hui's slagging off of Chinese League One rival Chengdu Rongcheng and expressing confidence in his coaching ability, it was more of a non-malicious "exaggeration" made by him under the influence of alcohol. Compared with the bad social impact of many celebrities' previous gaffes and the recent exposure of some celebrities' behavior in the entertainment industry, Xie Hui's private remarks are of a completely different nature.
The media and many fans had a heated discussion on the Internet after the work happened, and the mainstream view is that: this time, without Xie Hui's consent, the individual who took the video privately and disseminated it, and part of the self media, and even the release channel, are all the pushers that led to this public incident, and they should all bear the corresponding social responsibility. This incident should also cause reflection on the regulation of online public opinion.
As for Xie Hui himself, he not only issued a personal apology statement after the incident, but also privately communicated with all the clubs, explaining the circumstances of the incident, with a rather sincere attitude, and all the clubs also accepted Xie Hui's attitude.
Many coaches and former national soccer teammates who care about Xie Hui believe that as a public figure, Xie Hui must pay attention to his identity in private social occasions, and this is a heavy lesson. However, they think that Xie Hui's character and professional ability should not be "beaten to death" or even completely denied because of this incident. They called on all sectors of the community to treat Xie Hui with a more tolerant attitude, so that he can return to coaching as soon as possible and prove himself again.
