FAMED CHINESE FOOTBALL COMMENTATOR RESIGNS

China's anti-Aussie rant commentator quits

A star Chinese football commentator has quit his job with state television, months after a controversial anti-Australian World Cup rant.

Huang Jianxiang, 38, made headlines in June when he gave vent in front of an audience of millions to his disdain for Australia as they were knocked by a last-minute penalty by eventual champions Italy.

"Goooooal! Game over! Italy win!. Beat the Australians! ... Italy the great! ... Happy birthday to Maldini! Forza Italia!" Huang screamed as Francesco Totti converted the penalty to send Italy into the quarter-finals.

"The victory belongs to Italy, to Grosso, to Cannavaro, to Zambrotta, to Buffon, to Maldini, to everyone who loves Italian soccer! ... (Australia) should go home. They don't need to go as far away as Australia as most of them are living in Europe. Farewell!"

He later apologised for the outburst, but his comments were so widely publicised they were made into a mobile phone ring tone.

Jiang Heping, a sports channel manager at China Central Television (CCTV), told the Beijing Daily that the station had accepted Huang's resignation, and that it was not related to the World Cup saga.

"It is really regrettable for such a wonderful announcer to quit all of a sudden," the newspaper quoted Zhang Bin, a colleague, as saying.

Huang became a household name soon after he joined CCTV in 1994, at a time when Chinese viewers, new to sport on TV, were more used to staid announcers who did little more than read out players' numbers and names during a live broadcast.

Huang impressed his audience as a maverick who knew his game, was eloquent in match analysis and proficient in English.

But he had been rumoured to have been sidelined within CCTV, a government mouthpiece still criticised by some for its stodgy programming, for his sometimes bold comments.

Huang, divorced with a daughter, had also received negative press for spending too much time doing fashion shoots for magazines and writing a book.

"Perhaps something from within his heart instead of external forces drove him to leave," the Beijing Daily quoted Huang's friend and sports columnist, Li Chengpeng, as saying.

"He doesn't like being fettered. Such a talent needs more freedom."

Huang described himself as a "jobless middle-aged man" in a posting on his blog, but it may not be for long.

The Beijing Daily said his next employer could be a youth-oriented national network based in China's financial hub of Shanghai.

:: WWW.REUTERS