{"id":75635,"date":"2024-03-26T14:16:22","date_gmt":"2024-03-26T14:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/former-china-football-chief-given-life-sentence-for-bribery-the-express-tribune\/"},"modified":"2024-03-26T14:16:22","modified_gmt":"2024-03-26T14:16:22","slug":"former-china-football-chief-given-life-sentence-for-bribery-the-express-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/former-china-football-chief-given-life-sentence-for-bribery-the-express-tribune\/","title":{"rendered":"Former China football chief given life sentence for bribery | The Express Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\nBEIJING:
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

The former chairman of the Chinese Football Association has been sentenced to life in prison for accepting bribes worth $11 million, state media said Tuesday, as a string of sports officials were jailed for corruption.<\/p>\n

Under President Xi Jinping a sweeping crackdown on official graft has struck hard at China’s sports industry, especially football.<\/p>\n

About 10 senior leaders and executives of the CFA, including former national team coach Li Tie, have been brought down in recent years.<\/p>\n

Former chairman Chen Xuyuan took advantage of his positions at the CFA and other bodies to “illegally accept sums of money from other people totalling 81.03 million yuan ($11 million)”, the Communist Party-run People’s Daily newspaper said.<\/p>\n

The bribes were “particularly huge” and his actions “seriously damaged fair competition and order”, the report said.<\/p>\n

He “caused serious consequences for the national football industry”, it added.<\/p>\n

Xi is a self-confessed football fanatic who has said he dreams of his country hosting and winning the World Cup.<\/p>\n

That ambition appears further away than ever after the corruption probe and years of disappointing results on the pitch.<\/p>\n

National skipper Zhang Linpeng last week quit international football over the “disgrace” of a World Cup qualifying draw with Singapore, before reversing his decision.<\/p>\n

Chen held other positions in football before serving as CFA chairman from 2019 until he came under investigation in February last year.<\/p>\n

In January, Chen appeared in a televised documentary confessing to having accepted money from those wishing to get in his good books.<\/p>\n

“Fans can accept the fact that the state of Chinese football is bad,” Chen said in the documentary.<\/p>\n

“But they cannot forgive corruption.”<\/p>\n

Rulings in other major graft cases are expected to be announced on Tuesday, according to state news agency Xinhua.<\/p>\n

They may include the fate of the former coach Li, who was close to Chen.<\/p>\n

The former Everton midfielder admitted in the January documentary that he arranged nearly $430,000 in bribes to secure that position and also helped fix matches when he was a club coach.<\/p>\n

“There were certain things that at the time were common practices in football,” he said.<\/p>\n

In separate bribery verdicts announced Tuesday, former senior CFA official Chen Yongliang was handed a 14-year sentence.<\/p>\n

Former Chinese Super League general manager Dong Zheng received eight years.<\/p>\n

State media also reported that Yu Hongchen, the former chairman of the China Athletic Association, had been sentenced to 13 years for the same crime.<\/p>\n

Another case that sent shockwaves through the Chinese game and beyond was that of South Korean international footballer Son Jun-ho, who was detained by Chinese authorities last May.<\/p>\n

Beijing said at the time that the World Cup midfielder was detained “on suspicion of accepting bribes by non-state employees”, without providing details.<\/p>\n

Seoul’s foreign ministry said Monday that he had been released and returned home.<\/p>\n

Son played for Shandong Taishan in the Chinese Super League and also appeared in three of South Korea’s four matches during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.<\/p>\n

International teammate Lee Jae-sung told media that he was grateful for Son’s release.<\/p>\n

“It broke my heart when I first heard about his detention last year,” he told a press conference in Bangkok, where South Korea play Thailand later Tuesday in a World Cup qualifier.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEIJING: The former chairman of the Chinese Football Association has been sentenced to life in prison for accepting bribes worth $11 million, state media said Tuesday, as a string of sports officials were jailed for corruption. Under President Xi Jinping a sweeping crackdown on official graft has struck hard at China’s sports industry, especially football. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/chen-x1711452770-0\/chen-x1711452770-0.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t