Related News

HomeNation

Crackdown may reach women's football

THE crackdown on match fixing in Chinese soccer will soon reach women's football, the head of Chinese Football Association said after police started investigation on referees.

After more than 20 arrests and detentions of officials, players and club managers from men's football since March, the women's team can not remain unaffected in the long-term clampdown, said Wei Di, the newly appointed CFA boss, according to today's Beijing Times.

Wei was commenting after the Ministry of Public Security confirmed Huang Junjie, a 44-year old renowned soccer referee, was taken to assist investigation yesterday.

Huang was driving a luxury vehicle that he could not afford with his lawful income. He allegedly charges 50,000 yuan to fix a game in the China Series A team and 100,000 yuan for preferential treatments in the Super League, Yangtze Evening News reported today.

Lu Jun, a retired referee who was considered China's No.1 and nicknamed the "gold whistle," was reported missing and Beijing times speculates he was also taken along with Zhou Weixing and a woman referee Shen Huangying for their involvement in the scandal.

Lu's mobile phone had been off for days.

Shen was one of the few female referees who took bribes for preferential treatment on the field, Beijing Youth Daily quoted an insider as saying.

Wei said if the police found evidence of corruption, it is sure to implicate women's football. He did not say exactly how many referees were involved in the investigation.

The four are the first batch of referees to be targeted in the clampdown. Wei said it is a long-expected progress in the surgery on the glaring tumor of China's football as referees should be held responsible for the quagmire Chinese soccer is in now.

He said the investigation will not stand in the way of the Super League season that is about to kick off this month. Wei said foreign referees would be hired if the investigation implicated too many referees and caused a shortage of referees.

Before the four were taken by police, former referees' director Zhang Jianqiang was arrested for taking bribes in exchange for fixing games, the Ministry of Public Security said on March 1.

 

Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

娌叕缃戝畨澶 31010602000204鍙

Email this to your friend