China sends sports officials convicted of bribery to prison

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BEIJING (AP) — The former president of the Chinese Football Association has been sentenced to life in prison in a broader campaign to tackle corruption in soccer.

Chinese courts on Tuesday imposed sentences of between eight years in prison and life in prison on officials of sports programs controlled by the Communist Party accused of accepting bribes and committing other financial crimes.

Chen Xuyuan, former president of the Chinese Football Association (CFA), was sentenced to life in prison for helping to fix matches and using his various positions to commit financial crimes, according to state media.

Among the senior officials sentenced to prison for accepting bribes were former National Athletics Association director Hong Chen, who was sentenced to 13 years; former CFA senior official Chen Yongliang (14 years) and Dong Zheng, former general manager of CFA Super League company (8 years).

The league is mostly backed by real estate companies that have become over-indebted and cannot deliver completed homes or pay off loans.

Payments to players expected to become stars in China, and potential international brands, have been scuttled amid concerns about the finances of those companies in the world‘s second-largest economy.

Chinese soccer leagues have long struggled with corruption and financial instability, while the men’s and women’s national teams have languished internationally despite their past successes.

Corruption in sport is mainly linked to payments to players and referees to achieve results that benefit the game’s unions.

Payments were also reported to give players places in training camps for big clubs, including the men’s national team, which is in 88th place in the FIFA rankings. The women’s team occupies 19th place.

The country’s president, Xi Jinping, had announced his plans to turn the country into a football superpower by enrolling children in newly created academies and building thousands of new fields.

The slowdown of the economy and the government’s involvement in sports, culture and private business have hampered the possible success of these objectives.