The 16th Asiad begins tomorrow (Friday) in Guangshou.
The organisers have published the rules that must be followed by all spectators prominently outside all stadiums:
The list (of banned items), prominently displayed outside venues, includes whistles, lighters and matches, drink, food in large amounts that can be easily thrown, balls, rackets, frisbees and balloons.
A local government official confirmed that the plastic trumpet, (the Vuvuzela) often in garish colours, will be banned from all venues.
Zhang Youquan, deputy director of the Civilisation Office of the Guangzhou government, named the vuvuzela amid the list of banned items. According to a report by the Guangzhou Daily, spectators violating etiquette during the Games featuring 45 countries and regions competing in 42 sports will be advised by volunteers, and may be referred to security if they refuse to obey the rules.
The (vuvuzelas) have since (the World Cup) been banned by UEFA, European football’s governing body, and by several English Premier League club grounds, as well as at the Commonwealth Games last month in New Delhi.
Cheering is still allowed but should not get too boisterous!
But Chinese athletes will also have to be on their best behaviour. In a separate report AFP reports:
Thousands of athletes began settling in for the Asian Games Thursday, but for one man it has been a nightmare start after a humbling apology to China for calling fans “a bunch of dogs”.
The Olympic Council of Asia officially confirmed the 16th Asiad as the biggest ever with 9,704 athletes and nearly 5,000 team officials in the booming southern Chinese city. Among them are dozens of Olympic and world champions with Chinese superstars Liu Xiang (110m hurdles) and Lin Dan (badminton) and Japanese swimmer Kosuke Kitajima among the biggest names.
With athletes from 45 countries and regions competing for 476 gold medals, tensions are starting to build ahead of the opening ceremony on Friday and the official start of competition Saturday, when 28 titles will be decided.
While most athletes were enjoying the atmosphere, Chinese football goalkeeper Wang Dalei was not one of them after sparking outrage for calling home fans “morons” and “a bunch of dogs”. The highly-rated 21-year-old, linked with European champions Inter Milan and big-spending Manchester City, let loose on a micro-blogging site after being singled out for his failure to stop Japan’s second goal on Monday.
After being suspended by the Chinese delegation – and dropped for Wednesday’s 2-1 win over Kyrgyzstan – he issued an apology. Cai Jiadong, secretary general of the Chinese Asian Games delegation, said Wang’s action were “unsportsmanlike and irrational and hurt the feelings of Chinese soccer fans.”
The football competition got underway last Sunday, the only event to start ahead of the official opening of a mulit-sports event traditionally dominated by China, Japan and South Korea.
The Games run until November 27
The k2p blog 