China entrepreneur promises football team players a car each, retracts offer after landmark win

An entrepreneur in China has come under fire for promising to gift a car to every member of a city’s football team if they won an important competition, then reneging on her promise when they did.

While many people criticised the woman, the local football association said it would not push the woman to fulfil her promise, saying they understood her financial predicament.

The response was viewed 22 million times on one mainland social media platform alone. It also attracted praise from the state media who described it as “winning the people’s heart”.

The entrepreneur at the centre of the controversy is Tang Lei, chairwoman of the car dealer Xinlantian Group in Yongzhou, Hunan province, central China.

In August, she donated 100,000 yuan (US$14,000) to the city’s football team so they could take part in the Hunan Provincial Football Competition.

At that time, Tang was one of the very few sponsors of the team as most people did not rate their chances of winning.

According to a viral video Tang released on social media, she told the whole team: “If you win the championship, I will give each of you a car as a gift.”

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