Editor's note: The following article discusses the rampant corruption which plagues Chinese football and highlights the key persons implicated in corruption scandals in recent years. Recently, China has begun clamping down on the corrupt practices infesting the sport, handing down lengthy prison sentences to the key perpetrators. As football's popularity continues to increase, will such actions be enough to give Chinese football the clean-up it needs to compete internationally?

Source: epaper.loone.cn

The current state of football in China is already something of an embarrassment, but perhaps even more disgraceful than the gameplay itself are the layers upon layers of internal corruption. People from practically every level have been implicated in some sort of scandal, from the highest-level directors of the Chinese General Sports Administration Football Management Center to the referees on the field, from the head coach of the national team to the players themselves. It's a complex web of dubious connections, a tangled mess of individuals temporarily collaborating for personal gain.

In the world of Chinese football, national level administrators often intervene in team decisions, including helping the coaches choose line-ups, or even directly forcing them to use certain players over others. Compared to rigged matches, illegal betting, or dirty referees that anyone can spot, most fans would agree that high-level officials in national sports administration leadership manipulating entire competitions from behind a curtain of corruption is somewhat more threatening to the game itself. With enough money, anything is possible. 200,000 Yuan buys a win or loss. 50-60,000 Yuan buys a spot on the national team. A starting member of the former national team was once caught accepting a 2 million Yuan bribe to throw a match. But antics like these are just the tip of the iceberg. With corruption of this magnitude, suddenly it's not so hard to understand why a country of 1.5 billion people can't seem to scrape together 11 decent football players.

Since Football Management Center director Nan Yong's arrest under charges of rigging and gambling on matches in March of 2010, the Chinese football world has enjoyed more than two full years of scandal and investigations. On June 13th, a new pronouncement has implicated a number of officials, referees and players from several organisations and football clubs in a wide range of offenses, including gambling, match fixing and other illegal activity.

Below is an overview of the major players implicated in the cases, along with description of the charges and the results:

Person & Position	Details	Crime	Sentence
Xie Yalong (Director of the National Football Management Center)	Abused official privileges to manipulate the system for others in exchange for gifts. From 1998 to June of 2008, accepted a total of 1,363,800 RMB in gifts	Bribery	10 years and 6 months imprisonment, confiscation of 200,000 RMB in property and 710,000 RMB in illegal assets
Nan Yong (Director of the Football Management Center)	As deputy director, then director of the Football Management Center, and as vice director of the Chinese Football Association, accepted special requests related to football affairs. From 1998 to 2009, accepted a total of 1,196,554 RMB in funds, watches, necklaces and other gifts in return for favours for players and coaches from several clubs.	Bribery	10 years and 6 months imprisonment, 200,000 RMB in fines
Person & Position	Details	Crime	Sentence
Yu Shaohui ( Deputy director of the Football Management Center's Department of Development, captain of the original Chinese national men's soccer team)	Abused status as deputy director of the Football Management Center's Department of Development, lead coordinator and supervisor of competitions, and captain of the original Chinese national men's soccer team to organise and influence commercial, club, and league matches on behalf of numerous national officials; abused authority as Beijing Sport University official to influence results of athletics examinations. From 1995 to 2000, illegally accepted and demanded a total of 1,236,554 RMB in funds.	Bribery	10 years and 6 months imprisonment, confiscation of 200,000 RMB in property and 1,236,554 RMB in illegal funds.
Person & Position	Details	Crime	Sentence
Li Dongsheng (Former director of the Football Management Center's Technical Department)	From March of 2003 to 2010, multiple offenses of bribery on behalf of several departments and persons, totalling more than 790,000 RMB. From February of 2005 to March of 2008, illegally manipulated 46,300 RMB of public funds through six repeated incidents of falsified receipts	Bribery, corruption	7 years imprisonment and confiscation of 100,000 RMB in property for bribery, 5 years imprisonment (final total decided sentence 9 years imprisonment) and confiscation of 100,000 RMB in property for corruption
Shen Si (Head coach of the Shanghai Zhongbang team)	On November 30th, 2003, before the league match against Tianjin TEDA, accepted 2,000,000 RMB of the 8,000,000 RMB in bribes offered to four individuals by Wang Yong (tried in a separate case)	Bribery (non-government official)	6 years imprisonment, confiscation of 500,000 RMB in property
Qi Hong, Li Ming, Jiang Jin (Former national team players)	On November 30th, 2003, before the league match against Tianjin TEDA, accepted 2,000,000 RMB each out of the 8,000,000 RMB in bribes offered to four individuals by Wang Yong (tried in a separate case)	Bribery (non-government official)	5 years and 6 months imprisonment, confiscation of 500,000 RMB in property
Person & Position	Details	Crime	Sentence
Shao Wenzhong (Former CEO of Chinese Football Association affiliate company Futebao)	From 1998 to 2003, abused status as CEO and legal representative of the China Futebao development company and the Beijing Futebao advertising company to misappropriate 4,200,000 RMB and embezzle an additional 4,000,000 RMB of public funds.	Corruption, embezzlement of public funds	12 years and confiscation of 500,000 RMB in property for corruption, 6 years imprisonment for embezzlement for a total of 18 years (final decided sentence 15 years) plus an additional 500,000 RMB for embezzlement.
Huang Junjie (Former referee)	From 2005 to 2009, abused authority as official referee to accept illegal bribes on more than 20 occasions from multiple clubs and individuals totalling 1,480,000 RMB and 100,000 HKD.	Bribery (non-government official)	7 years imprisonment, confiscation of 200,000 RMB in property
Lu Jun (Asian Football Confederation Referee Committee member (one of 6 major members))	From 1999 to 2003, abused authority as official referee to accept illegal bribes on 7 occasions from multiple clubs and individuals totalling 810,000 RMB.	Bribery (non-government official)	5 years and 6 months imprisonment, confiscation of 100,000 RMB in property
Person & Position	Details	Crime	Sentence
Zhou Weixin (Former Chinese Super League main referee)	From 2001 to 2005 accepted bribes on 8 occasions totalling 490,000 RMB. In 2009, offered 8 separate bribes to four individuals including Huang Junjie totalling 350,000 RMB and 100,000 HKD 2001.	Bribery (non-government official) and offering bribes (to non-government officials)	3 years and 6 months imprisonment
Wan Daxue (Chinese International level referee)	From 2003 to 2009 accepted bribes on 11 occasions totalling 940,000 RMB.	Bribery (non-government official)	6 years imprisonment, confiscation of 150,000 RMB
Lü Feng (General Manager of Chinese Super League Limited)	In 2001, gave 50,000 RMB in bribe money to Nan Yong. From 2007 to 2009, accepted 1,400,000 RMB in bribes.	Bribery (non-government official)	6 years and 6 months imprisonment, confiscation of 150,000 RMB
Yang Yimin (Former deputy Director of the Football Management Center)	From 1997 to 2009, abused authority to accept illegal bribes from multiple clubs and individuals totalling more than 1,254,000 RMB.	Bribery	10 years and 6 months imprisonment, fined 200,000 RMB
Person & Position	Details	Crime	Sentence
Zhang Jianqiang (Deputy director of the Football Management Center's Integrated Department)	From 1997 to 2009, abused authority to accept illegal bribes from multiple clubs and individuals totalling more than 2,730,000 RMB.	Bribery	12 years imprisonment, fined 250,000 RMB

 

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Keywords: Football corruption China corrupt football players China Chinese football problems