On the evening of September 5th, the first round of the round of 18 of the 2026 Asian World Cup qualifiers began, with the Chinese national football team playing away against the Japanese team.
However, CCTV Sports did not broadcast the game. That evening, the official Weibo account of CCTV Sports stated: "The copyright of this event is held by the Asian Football Group (AFG), the agency of the Asian Football Confederation. During the negotiation process, although our station repeatedly fought for it, the other party's offer was still extremely high. As the national broadcasting and television station, we adhere to the principle of putting national interests first and resolutely resist the behavior of domestic and foreign capital disrupting the sports copyright market. Currently, we are still in continuous communication with all parties to strive to obtain the venue copyright of the Chinese team's participation as soon as possible and broadcast the game in a timely manner." However, one hour later, the official deleted this Weibo account.
It is reported that iQiyi has exclusively bought out the broadcasting rights of the game, and users need to purchase a single game viewing qualification or subscribe to a continuous monthly subscription for paid viewing.
However, shortly after the start of the competition, the topic of "iQiyi, unable to watch with money" suddenly exploded on the hot search list. Many netizens reported that the iQiyi page was stuck, unable to watch the competition normally, and the online customer service was unable to respond in a timely manner due to the large number of inquiries, demanding a refund from iQiyi.
The iQiyi app announced on its customer service page: "Currently, it is the peak period for inquiries. In order to save time, it is recommended to come back for inquiries at 4:00 pm or the same time the next day to avoid long queues
Subsequently, iQiyi Sports responded by saying: "Dear iQiyi Sports users, we are very sorry that during tonight's live broadcast of the first away game of the Chinese men's football team against the Japanese team in the Asian quarter finals of the World Cup qualifiers, the enthusiasm of the fans caused excessive instantaneous traffic. Our technical service resource allocation exceeded the limit, causing some users to have a bad viewing experience. In the future, we will further strengthen our technical plans and operational capabilities, and provide more stable and reliable live streaming services to everyone. If you have any related questions to communicate, please contact iQiyi Sports at 4008901300. Due to the large volume of inquiries, it may take time to connect, and we hope for your understanding. Thank you to every fan who cheers for Chinese football! Thank you very much for your understanding and cooperation. Support, I sincerely apologize again
(Reported by Xie Yiwen from Sina Weibo, Jiemian News, and Securities Times)