New blow delivered to soccer credibility
By Wang Xiang |
March 17, 2010, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
AN anonymous letter has again blown the whistle on Chinese football, naming high-ranking officials as directly responsible for the game's dire straits at the national level.
The scathing letter comes just three months after a similar correspondence helped to send three top officials into custody.
The latest letter was sent to sports reporters on Monday, accusing an official in China's General Administration of Sport of having received money from Nan Yong, former head of the China Football Association, who has been under detention since his arrest over bribery allegations on March 2.
The anonymous whistle blower included details of Nan's recent life to add credibility to the new letter.
Nan had told police everything that could ease his penalty, the letter said.
The exact amount of money involved in Nan's bribes had also been revealed, it said.
Nan used underhand tricks to undermine visiting teams, the letter said, citing the 2001 Asian World Cup Qualifiers when the dressing room of a West Asian team was purposely flooded and the turf watered without any notice to the visiting team.
The whistle blower said the letter had also been sent to disciplinary watchdogs in the sports administration.
The new head of the CFA, Wei Di, confirmed yesterday that three referees - Huang Junjie, Lu Jun and Zhou Weixin, who was reported missing 10 days ago - had been arrested after police collected solid evidence of them taking money in exchange for preferential treatment.
After the three were taken away by police, more than 200 Chinese soccer officials were sent on a five-day "anti-corruption rectification education camp" as a part of an expanding anti-graft campaign.
Sports newspaper Goal China revealed yesterday that preferential treatment from corrupt referees on the field of China's top division would cost 100,000 yuan (US$14,650).
Some referees even solicited money from clubs, it said.
A club manager in the Series A league told the newspaper that he received telephone calls from a referee implying that something bad would happen to his team if he did not get paid.
The report said six unnamed clubs were implicated in the match-fixing scandal involving the three referees and all of them were in the Super League.
Shandong Luneng, a two-time champion of the Super League, attracted most suspicion because its former manager, Dong Gang, was taken in by police for questioning.
The newspaper said if Luneng was connected with the referee scandal, it faced relegation and being stripped of its championship titles.
The scathing letter comes just three months after a similar correspondence helped to send three top officials into custody.
The latest letter was sent to sports reporters on Monday, accusing an official in China's General Administration of Sport of having received money from Nan Yong, former head of the China Football Association, who has been under detention since his arrest over bribery allegations on March 2.
The anonymous whistle blower included details of Nan's recent life to add credibility to the new letter.
Nan had told police everything that could ease his penalty, the letter said.
The exact amount of money involved in Nan's bribes had also been revealed, it said.
Nan used underhand tricks to undermine visiting teams, the letter said, citing the 2001 Asian World Cup Qualifiers when the dressing room of a West Asian team was purposely flooded and the turf watered without any notice to the visiting team.
The whistle blower said the letter had also been sent to disciplinary watchdogs in the sports administration.
The new head of the CFA, Wei Di, confirmed yesterday that three referees - Huang Junjie, Lu Jun and Zhou Weixin, who was reported missing 10 days ago - had been arrested after police collected solid evidence of them taking money in exchange for preferential treatment.
After the three were taken away by police, more than 200 Chinese soccer officials were sent on a five-day "anti-corruption rectification education camp" as a part of an expanding anti-graft campaign.
Sports newspaper Goal China revealed yesterday that preferential treatment from corrupt referees on the field of China's top division would cost 100,000 yuan (US$14,650).
Some referees even solicited money from clubs, it said.
A club manager in the Series A league told the newspaper that he received telephone calls from a referee implying that something bad would happen to his team if he did not get paid.
The report said six unnamed clubs were implicated in the match-fixing scandal involving the three referees and all of them were in the Super League.
Shandong Luneng, a two-time champion of the Super League, attracted most suspicion because its former manager, Dong Gang, was taken in by police for questioning.
The newspaper said if Luneng was connected with the referee scandal, it faced relegation and being stripped of its championship titles.
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