The former president of the Chinese Football Federation, who admitted to receiving large bribes, was sentenced to life in prison, state media reported Tuesday, as part of the vast campaign anti-corruption targeting this sport in China.
Published on: 03/26/2024 – 06:16 Modified on: 03/26/2024 – 07:02
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Chen Xuyuan took advantage of his position to “ illegally accepting money from other people totaling 81.03 million yuan », or 10.4 million euros, according to the People’s Daily.
A court in Hubei province (central) therefore sentenced him to “ life imprisonment for accepting bribes, lifelong loss of political rights and confiscation of all personal property ».
The bribes received by Chen Xuyuan were “ particularly huge » and his actions have “ had serious consequences for the Chinese football sector », According to the same source.
The trial of the 67-year-old former leader took place in a gloomy context for Chinese football, with a weak national team, ingloriously eliminated from the Asian Cup, and a sporting image eaten away by embezzlement. .
President Xi Jinping, himself a football fan, had big ambitions for the national team. But this one, often mocked by the Chinese, remains stuck in 79th place in the Fifa rankings, more or less at the same level as 10 years ago.
Unspoken rule
In a resounding documentary on state television CCTV broadcast in January, Chen Xuyuan said he had received bribes from players in the football world wanting to curry favor with him. The latter had made him understand that this was the unspoken rule in the industry, according to him.
Chen Xuyuan was head of the Chinese Football Association, the state body which manages football and acts as a sports federation, between 2019 and 2023. In the CCTV documentary, Chen Xuyuan said he was unable to put enforced anti-corruption rules during his mandate, implying that this amounted to investigating himself and people to whom he was accountable.
« Supporters can accept the fact that the level of Chinese football is bad. But don’t forgive corruption “, he conceded. “ I would like to deeply apologize to all Chinese fans “. His conviction is part of a major anti-corruption campaign initiated by Xi Jinping for a decade.
In total, around ten senior Chinese football executives were dismissed for corruption.
In separate verdicts announced Tuesday, a former Chinese federation official, Chen Yongliang, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for corruption. The former general manager of the Chinese Super League (CSL), Dong Zheng, was sentenced to eight years in prison.
The ex-coach also targeted
Other verdicts are awaited. This could include former China coach Li Tie, who has been under investigation for corruption since 2022 and is in pre-trial detention.
In the CCTV documentary broadcast in January, the ex-Everton (Premier League) player admitted to having helped buy several matches which allowed the Chinese second division teams he managed to reach the elite.
To obtain his position as coach, he had Wuhan Zall, the club of which he was coach, pay two million yuan (255,000 euros) in bribes to Chen Xuyuan.
Li Tie also claimed in the documentary to have given one million yuan (128,000 euros) from his own pocket to the secretary general of the Chinese Football Federation. “ I regret it very much. I should have stayed grounded and followed the straight path “, the 46-year-old technician declared on television, looking sheepish. “ There are certain things that, at the time, were common practices in football. »
Another case that caused a scandal was that of South Korean international footballer Son Jun-ho, accused of “ corruption » and detained for ten months in China, where he plays in a club. He has just been released and returned to his country, the South Korean Foreign Ministry announced on Monday.
