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, spread rapidly on the Internet, and the Nantong Zhiyun team then announced the suspension of Xie Hui.
The incident originated from Xie Hui's drunken remarks that were secretly filmed and uploaded to the internet when he was partying with his friends in private, which triggered widespread concern and heated debates. As a former international footballer, Xie Hui's blunder cost him his coaching position, and the incident is still under further development.
Drinking party gaffe sparks storm
The incident took place on the evening of August 17th, when Xie Hui had a private dinner with some friends and drank more wine. After the drinks, Xie Fai was in high spirits and expressed his views on Chinese professional soccer, involving Chinese Super League clubs such as Shanghai's Harbor and Shenhua, as well as Chinese League One clubs such as Chengdu Rongcheng and Nantong Zhiyun, which is Xie Fai's current home ground.
Xie Hui's comments were unknowingly captured on video by a non-friend at the same table, which then went viral on social media and was quoted by a number of self-published media outlets, sparking an uproar in just one day.
The Nantong Zhiyun team then released an official statement, pointing out that Xie Hui made inappropriate remarks after drinking at a private party and decided to suspend his head coaching duties with immediate effect.
Xie Hui himself quickly apologized publicly through his personal social channels, saying, "I attended a friend's party last night and drank too much. I don't know the other side of the ulterior motive, to secretly shoot, will be my drunken remarks released online, and exaggerate the facts, seriously damaged my reputation. To such scum abhorrence, reserve the right to legal action! At the same time, I sincerely apologize to the units mentioned in the remarks (Chengdu Rongcheng, Shanghai Shenhua, Shanghai Harbour, Nantong Zhiyun)."
This incident is a typical case of a prominent social figure making a slip of the tongue, which quickly evolved into a public incident due to the spread of the Internet.
Was a positive representative of the national team
For the younger generation of fans, Xie Hui's name may not be familiar, but he was a "top stream" star in Chinese soccer 20 years ago.
Xie Hui's family background is also quite prominent, his great-grandfather Xie Yingrui was born in Hunan province, a scholarly family, was sent to study in Germany during the "foreign affairs movement" in the late Qing Dynasty, studied for a doctorate in medicine and then went to the United Kingdom, where he became the only Chinese member of the Royal Society of Medicine at that time, and worked as an attending physician in a public hospital in London. After the outbreak of World War I, he became the chief surgeon at a British field hospital. Tse's great-grandmother was an English nurse. Xie Hui's grandfather, Xie Dihua, had an even more storied career as a member of the New Fourth Army, and was partially the prototype for Li Xia in the movie Never Fade Away.
As a "half-breed" with one-eighth British blood, Xie Hui showed his soccer talent from an early age. 1995, at the age of 20, Xie Hui made his debut in the Shanghai Shenhua team, and became one of the most famous players of the late 1990s in the first A League, and became the second top scorer of the 1995-1999 season of the Shanghai Shenhua team.
In 2000, Xie Hui was transferred to Aachen of the German Bundesliga, and became Aachen's top scorer in the 2001 season with 14 goals as a starter.In 2001, Xie Hui was the top scorer in the World Cup qualifiers for the national soccer team, 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 in the forward line.
As an iconic figure of Chinese men's soccer, Xie Hui has played for German Bundesliga clubs for three times, and his strength is not for nothing. Xie Hui, who speaks fluent English, has always been an idol soccer player in China 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, and has served as assistant coach and spokesman of Shanghai Shenhua, team head coach of Shanghai Lucky Star Youth Football Club, and also served as scientific 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 the first team of Shanghai Port, assisting the three foreign managers of Eriksson, Boaz and Pereira, achieving the 2018 Chinese Super League title and 2019 Super Cup title.
Xie Hui, who is seen as an outstanding coach of the middle generation in China, made his debut as head coach of Nantong Zhiyun in the Central League since 2020, finishing in 12th place. So far this year, Xie has led Nantong Zhiyun to a second-place finish in Group B of the first phase of the Central League. In the same group, Nantong Zhiyun faced the first-ranked Chengdu Rongcheng in two rounds of matches and lost by one goal, but the process of the match was not inferior. Now, Nantong Zhiyun won the third place in Group A in the just-concluded second phase of the Central League.
With Xie Hui's background, rich soccer career and "learning" persona in the coaching process in recent years, he should have been a rare positive energy representative of Chinese soccer. But this time, Xie Hui's drunken "words are not enough", which is indeed regrettable.
Xie Hui should not be totally dismissed
The content of Xie Hui's speech is mainly centered on the Chinese professional league about the input and results of some of the "spit", focusing on the expression of three points of meaning:
The first is that many clubs have invested tens of billions of dollars cumulatively over the years, especially Shanghai's Shenhua and Seaport, which are representative of the people. He even pointed out that Seaport had spent 12 billion dollars behind the scenes when it won a Chinese Super League title with his experience of having worked in Seaport.
The second is that in this year's competition in the Central League, Chengdu Rongcheng invested 200 million and hired Korean foreign coach Seo Jung-won. While his Nantong Zhiyun only invested 10 million, but was able to press the other team to play.
The third is that the big spending clubs don't know how to play football, and he's just going to beat the crap out of the ones that don't know how to play football.
It's no secret that many people know what Xie Hui has been saying in the "gold dollar soccer" environment of Chinese professional soccer over the years. Of course, such as "seaport 12 billion investment in exchange for a Super League title" expression, in terms of numbers is not necessarily accurate, but Xie Hui in the seaport club work a few years, the club's specific operation is clear. 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 "spitting" and confident expression of his coaching ability towards his Chinese League One rival Chengdu Rongcheng, it was more of his "exaggeration" in a drunken state and not malicious. Compared with the bad social impact brought about by many celebrities' "slip of the tongue" and the recent exposure of some celebrities' behavior in the entertainment industry, Xie Hui's private remarks belong to a completely different nature of content.
The media and many fans announced many discussions on the Internet after the work happened, and the mainstream opinion is that: this time, without Xie Hui's consent, the individual who took the video privately and disseminated it, and some self-media, and even the release channels, are the pushers leading to this public incident, and they should all take 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 announced his personal apology statement after the work happened, 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 football teammates who care about Xie Hui believe that Xie Hui, as a public figure, must pay attention to his own identity in private social occasions, and this is a very 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 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.
