03/26/2024 – 19:05
Chen Xuyuan, who headed the China Football Association, the sport's highest governing body in the country, was sentenced to spend the rest of his life behind bars after being accused of corruption. Chinese state media reported this Tuesday (26/03) that a court in Hubei province, in central China, sentenced former Chinese Football Association (CFA) president Chen Xuyuan to life in prison.
Head of the entity – equivalent to the CBF in Brazil – between 2019 and 2023, Chen was found guilty of manipulating games and using his position to commit financial crimes.
According to the indictment, Chen also accepted bribes and valuables totaling more than 81 million yuan (R$56 million) between 2010 and 2023.
The official Xinhua news agency reported that all of 67-year-old Chen's personal assets had been confiscated and that his illegal earnings would be sent to China's public treasury.
According to the court, Chen “caused enormous damage to football in China”.
In February 2023, a disciplinary commission began investigating the then president of the CFA. Chen was formally charged last September. In January, Chinese television broadcast a documentary in which Chen allegedly confessed to his crimes.
Other high-ranking sports officials have also received prison sentences on suspicion of accepting bribes. Among them, the former head of the National Athletics Association, Hong Chen – sentenced to 13 years in prison –, former high-ranking football official Chen Yongliang, who received 14 years, and Dong Zheng, former CEO of Chinese Football Association Super League Company, which received an eight-year sentence.
Anti-corruption campaign
Lawsuits involving suspected corruption are also underway against Li Tie, a former coach of the country's men's national football team. In the same documentary broadcast in January, Li appeared to admit having paid the equivalent of around 400,000 euros in bribes to remain in his position as coach. He also said he helped fix matches as a club coach.
But the supposed confessions were also met with skepticism. Human rights organizations have for years accused the Chinese government of forcing alleged confessions of corruption – sometimes through torture.
President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign has hit Chinese football for more than a decade: in 2012, two former CFA presidents, Xie Yalong and Nan Yong, were each sentenced to 10 and a half years in prison.
Football ambitions
Since 2015, the country has also run a national football program. With the personal encouragement of President Xi Jinping, the country has ambitions to become a sports powerhouse in Asia.
But the path still seems far away. The only time China's men's team managed to qualify for the World Cup was in 2002, when Japan and South Korea hosted the tournament. China failed to advance from the group stage and also failed to score points.
jps/le (AP, Reuters, dpa)
#Chinese #top #hat #sentenced #life #prison