Day football dyed: Chinese match off because 'hair not black enough'

Zhao Lina is the face of Chinese women's football. Even though President Xi Jinping is a football fan with grand plans to make China a leading country in the world's most popular sport, the sport has found itself in the crosshairs of the Communist Party's drive for a homogenised society. Photo: AFP

A women's university football match in China descended into farce and was eventually called off after players were told that they were not allowed to have dyed hair.

The incident trended on the Twitter-like Weibo, angering many people, and comes after the men's national team were ordered to cover up their tattoos.

The latest high-profile example of the shrinking space for individualism in communist-ruled China came when the women's sides of Fuzhou and Jimei universities met in a college league match in the southeastern province of Fujian.