Former Head of China Football Association Jailed for Life for Taking Bribes – According to state media reports on Tuesday, Chen Xuyuan, the former head of China’s national football association, has been sentenced to life imprisonment for accepting bribes, marking the culmination of a significant anti-corruption investigation within the sport.
This harsh penalty for Chen, aged 67, brings an end to an investigation into senior football officials in China, within a sport long plagued by corruption, which fans believe has contributed to the consistent underperformance of the national team. In the concluding installment of a documentary series on corruption aired on national television in January, Chen disclosed that on the eve of assuming the chairmanship of the Chinese Football Association (CFA) in 2019, he had been given backpacks containing 300,000 yuan ($41,600) each by two local football officials, who sought his favor.
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Since President Xi Jinping assumed power and initiated an extensive anti-corruption campaign that has extended to the realm of football, public confessions of corruption, often coerced, have become a regular occurrence on national television. According to the official Xinhua news agency’s report on Tuesday, a court in central Hubei province found that Chen had exploited his various positions between 2010 and 2023, including those associated with the CFA, to assist others in matters such as project contracting, investment operations, and sports event arrangements.
In exchange, Chen was found to have accepted money and valuables totaling over 81 million yuan ($11.2 million), as stated by the court. The court ruling, cited by Xinhua, declared that Chen had caused significant harm to Chinese football. Among other football officials investigated for corruption were Chen Yongliang, former CFA executive deputy secretary-general; Yu Hongchen, a former vice head of the CFA; and Dong Zheng, a former general manager of the Chinese Super League.
According to state media reports on Tuesday, Chen Yongliang was sentenced to 14 years in prison, Yu received a 13-year sentence, and Dong was sentenced to eight years. In 2012, during the last major crackdown on soccer corruption in China, former CFA chairman Xie Yalong and his successor Nan Yong were each sentenced to 10-and-a-half years in prison for accepting bribes.
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