Chen Xuyuan’s sentencing concludes a wide-ranging anticorruption probe involving high soccer officers in China.
The previous chief of China’s nationwide soccer affiliation Chen Xuyuan has been sentenced to life in jail for accepting bribes, state media has reported, following one of many greatest anticorruption probes within the sport in years.
A courtroom in central Hubei province discovered that Chen took benefit of his varied posts from 2010 to 2023, together with these linked to the Chinese language Soccer Affiliation (CFA), to help others in issues concerning challenge contracting, funding operations and sport occasions preparations, the official Xinhua information company reported on Tuesday.
In return, Chen accepted cash and valuables value greater than 81 million yuan ($11m).
Chen has introduced “super injury” to China’s soccer trigger, Xinhua cited the courtroom ruling as saying.
The extreme sentence for Chen, 67, concludes a probe into high-level soccer officers in China in a sport that has lengthy grappled with corruption, which followers have blamed for the perpetual underperformance of the nationwide workforce.
Within the final episode of a four-part documentary collection on corruption aired on nationwide tv in January, Chen mentioned the night time earlier than he turned the chairman of the CFA in 2019 he had obtained backpacks every containing 300,000 yuan ($41,562) from two native soccer officers who wished him to “handle them”.
Confessions of corruption have grow to be a standard function on nationwide tv since President Xi Jinping got here to energy and unleashed a sweeping anticorruption marketing campaign that has additionally ensnared soccer.
Xi is a self-confessed soccer fanatic who has mentioned he desires of his nation internet hosting and successful the World Cup.
That ambition seems additional away than ever after the corruption probe and years of disappointing outcomes on the pitch.
Nationwide skipper Zhang Linpeng final week stop worldwide soccer over the “shame” of a World Cup qualifying draw with Singapore, earlier than reversing his determination.
Different soccer officers probed for corruption included Chen Yongliang, former CFA government deputy secretary-general, Liu Lei, a former director on the Wuhan Soccer Administration Centre, Yu Hongchen, a former vice head of the CFA, and Dong Zheng, a former basic supervisor of the Chinese language Tremendous League.
Chen has been sentenced to 14 years in jail, Yu 13 years, and Dong eight years, based on state media.
In 2012, former CFA chairman Xie Yalong and his successor Nan Yong had been every sentenced to 10 and a half years in jail for accepting bribes within the final massive soccer corruption dragnet in China.
Rulings in different main corruption instances are anticipated to be introduced later, based on state information company Xinhua.
One other case that despatched shockwaves by means of the Chinese language sport and past was that of South Korean worldwide footballer Son Jun-ho, who was detained by Chinese language authorities final Might. Son performed for Shandong Taishan within the Chinese language Tremendous League.
Beijing mentioned on the time that the World Cup midfielder was detained “on suspicion of accepting bribes by non-state workers”, with out offering particulars.
Seoul’s Ministry of International Affairs mentioned on Monday that he had been launched and returned house.
