Former president of the Chinese Football Association life sentence – 03/26/2024 – Sport

Chen Xuyuan, former president of the Chinese Football Association, was sentenced to life in prison for accepting bribes totaling US$11 million (R$54 million), the state press reported on Tuesday (26), as part of a major campaign against corruption in sport.

A court in Hubei province, in central China, sentenced Chen Xuyuan “to life in prison for accepting bribes”, revealed the newspaper ‘People’s Daily’, controlled by the Communist Party.

Between 2010 and 2023, Chen took advantage of his positions in the federation and other entities “to illegally accept sums of money from other people that reached 81.03 million yuan” (US$11 million, R$54 million), the newspaper reported .

The sports director sought to obtain “undue advantages for several football clubs and local football associations”, by manipulating match results or promotions, in addition to sanctions against referees.

The state newspaper claims that the bribes were “particularly enormous” and that the manager’s actions undermined “fair competition and order in the football sector”.

Chen assumed the presidency of the Chinese Football Association in 2019, but had previously held other prominent positions in the sport.

In January, he confessed in a television documentary that he had accepted money from people wanting to receive preferential treatment.

“Fans can accept the fact that the situation in Chinese football is bad,” Chen said in the documentary. “But they cannot forgive corruption,” he added.

Anti-corruption campaign

Chinese President Xi Jinping is passionate about football and has already stated that he dreams of seeing the country host and, eventually, champion a World Cup.

But since his rise to power a decade ago, he has waged a campaign against corruption, which also affects the sports industry.

Several Chinese Football Association officials have been removed from office in recent years, including Chen.

The official Xinhua news agency said the country was awaiting sentences in four other major corruption cases affecting football.

One of them involves former national team coach Li Tie, close to the former president of the federation.

In the documentary shown in January, the former player, who played for Everton in England, admitted that he paid US$421,000 (R$2.1 million) in bribes to secure his position in the federation and that he helped manipulate results when he was a club coach.

“There were some things that were common practice in football,” he said.

In other bribery convictions announced this Tuesday, former federation director Chen Yongliang and former Super League general director Dong Zheng received sentences of 14 and eight years in prison.

State media also reported that former president of the Chinese Athletics Association, Yu Hongchen, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for the same crime.

Another case that shook Chinese football was that of South Korean player Son Jun-ho, detained in the country in May.

Beijing announced that the midfielder was detained “on suspicion of accepting bribes from non-state officials”, without revealing further details.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry announced on Monday that he had been released and returned to the country.

Son has played for Shandong Taishan in the Chinese Super League since 2021 and played in three of the South Korea team’s four matches at the Qatar 2022 World Cup.