(File photo)

A kindergarten soccer league in central China's Hunan province has been widely criticized for defiling soccer after it crowned a soccer team with more likes on an online voting platform, instead of the champion with the most goals.

The league, hosted by Hunan-based Hootoo Club, kicked off in June this year and ended on July 30 after several rounds of group matches, round-robin tournaments. The championship eventually went to the first team of No.3 provincial kindergarten of Hunan, yet the cheering parents and children didn’t get the result they had expected. Rather than award the team that made it to the finals, it went to the team that received the most likes online.

The announcement angered almost all parents of the winning team, who argued that the rule was irrational and was extremely unfair for the children who had trained very hard in the past year for the league.

“Each match ended with a dozen to zero. What does a ‘like’ mean? It means nothing, and everybody can do that,” said an angry mother.

Calling the league the “World Children Cup,” the Hootoo Club said it ranked all soccer teams in Hunan by the number of likes they received on a voting platform on the club’s official WeChat account. Winners at each match can also receive a certain number of likes.

“We set the rule to make children soccer less competitive. We don’t want to call a child number one simply because he or she scores a goal. We want more children to participate in the game, even if they cannot play at all,” a female organizer said in an interview with Hunan Economic Television Station.

The excuse triggered even more discontent among netizens, who have called to “like” the winning team. Many joked that the World Cup should make the same rule so that China can finally win. As of press time, the champion team has received 9,069 likes, sitting on top of the ranking.