Sports
Corruption: China Jails FA President For Life
The former president of the Chinese Football Association has been sentenced to life in prison amid a wide-ranging crackdown on sports corruption.
Chinese courts yesterday handed down sentences of between eight years and life in prison to officials in the Communist Party-controlled sports programs, accusing them of taking bribes and committing other financial crimes.
The former CFA president, Chen Xuyuan, received a life sentence for helping fix matches and using his various positions to commit financial crimes, state media reported.
It was reported that all of Chen’s personal property would be confiscated and his illegal gains would be recovered and turned over to the state treasury.
Other high-ranking officials sentenced to prison for taking bribes included the former head of the National Athletics Association, Hong Chen, who was sentenced to 13 years, former high-ranking soccer official Chen Yongliang, who received 14 years, and Dong Zheng, former CEO of Chinese Football Association Super League Company, for eight years.
The league is largely backed by real estate firms that have become overextended and cannot deliver finished apartments or pay back their debts.
The payments to players whom they hoped would make them ever-bigger in China and possibly international brand names have come askew amid concerns about company finances in the world’s second largest economy.
China’s domestic soccer leagues have long struggled with corruption and financial instability, while the national men’s and women’s teams languish in the international ranks, despite earlier successes.
Corruption in the sport is mainly linked to payoffs to players and referees to produce an outcome that benefits gambling syndicates.
There have also been allegations that payments were made to gain players spots at training camps for top teams, including the men’s national squad, which is now ranked 88th by FIFA. The Chinese women’s team occupies 19th place.
Xi Jinping, China’s head of state and leader of the ruling Communist Party, had previously announced plans to make China a football superpower through the enrollment of children in newly constructed academies aided by the construction of thousands of new pitches.
An economic slowdown and government involvement in sports, culture and private business have weighed on the potential success of those goals.
National skipper Zhang Linpeng last week quit international football over the disgrace of a World Cup qualifying draw with Singapore, before reversing his decision.
Chen held other positions in football before serving as CFA chairman from 2019 until he came under investigation in February last year.
In January, Chen appeared in a televised documentary confessing to having accepted money from those wishing to get in his good books.
“Fans can accept the fact that the state of Chinese football is bad. But they cannot forgive corruption,” Chen said in the documentary.
Rulings in other major graft cases are expected to be announced on Tuesday, according to state news agency Xinhua.
They may include the fate of the former coach Li, who was close to Chen.
The former Everton midfielder admitted in the January documentary that he arranged nearly $430,000 in bribes to secure that position and also helped fix matches when he was a club coach.
“There were certain things that at the time were common practices in football,” he said.
The former chairman of the Chinese Football Association has been sentenced to life in prison for accepting bribes worth $11 million, state media said Tuesday, as a string of sports officials were jailed for corruption.
Under President Xi Jinping a sweeping crackdown on official graft has struck hard at China’s sports industry, especially football.
About 10 senior leaders and executives of the CFA, including former national team coach Li Tie, have been brought down in recent years.
Former chairman Chen Xuyuan took advantage of his positions at the CFA and other bodies to “illegally accept sums of money from other people totalling 81.03 million yuan ($11 million)”, the Communist Party-run People’s Daily newspaper said.
The bribes were “particularly huge” and his actions “seriously damaged fair competition and order”, the report said.
He “caused serious consequences for the national football industry”, it added.
Xi is a self-confessed football fanatic who has said he dreams of his country hosting and winning the World Cup.
That ambition appears further away than ever after the corruption probe and years of disappointing results on the pitch.
National skipper Zhang Linpeng last week quit international football over the disgrace of a World Cup qualifying draw with Singapore, before reversing his decision.
Chen held other positions in football before serving as CFA chairman from 2019 until he came under investigation in February last year.
In January, Chen appeared in a televised documentary confessing to having accepted money from those wishing to get in his good books.
“Fans can accept the fact that the state of Chinese football is bad,” Chen said in the documentary.
“But they cannot forgive corruption.”
Rulings in other major graft cases are expected to be announced on Tuesday, according to state news agency Xinhua.
They may include the fate of the former coach Li, who was close to Chen.
The former Everton midfielder admitted in the January documentary that he arranged nearly $430,000 in bribes to secure that position and also helped fix matches when he was a club coach.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has said that the Premier League leaders must win trophies if they were to be remembered like the “Invincibles” side that last won the title for the Gunners in 2004.
Arsene Wenger’s side romped to the title 22 years ago without losing a single league game.
Arsenal headede into last night’s clash at home to reigning champions Liverpool with a five-point lead at the top of the table after Manchester City and Aston Villa dropped points against Brighton and Hove Albion and Crystal Palace, respectively on Wednesday.
Arteta’s men, runners-up for the past three seasons, have two more points and four more goals than Wenger’s ‘Invincibles’ managed after 20 games.
But the Spaniard said those stats matter little unless Arsenal go on to win the league.
“No, because ‘the Invincibles’ won a lot,” Arteta told his pre-match press conference on whether his side can be considered better than Arsenal’s last title winners.
“They won consistently, and they created a history and a legacy, and we have to do that.”
The lone major piece of silverware won by Arsenal in six years under Arteta remains the 2020 FA Cup
“There are a lot of stats, but in the last two or three years we have managed more points and more goals than ever before. But at the end, we have to translate that to major trophies,” he added.
“Probably doing what we are doing now would have been enough (in 2004), but now it’s not, and we have to make the margins even bigger.”
Arsenal lost 1-0 to Liverpool at Anfield back in August in what was billed as an early showdown between title rivals.
The defending champions headed to the Emirates 14 points off the top after a difficult second season for Arne Slot, but Arteta insisted the Reds remain a superb side.
The Gunners were without sidelined defenders Riccardo Calafiori and Cristhian Mosquera but were“monitoring the load” on Kai Havertz as the Germany forward intensified his training while continuing to recover from a long-term leg injury.
Nigeria sharpshooters Victor Osimhen and Ademola Lookman will provide a stern test to the flawless record of Algeria goalkeeper Luca Zidane, a son of French football icon Zinedine Zidane, in the Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals in Morocco.
Zidane is the only first-choice goalkeeper amongst the eight quarter-finalists to have kept a clean sheet in all of his tournament matches so far, but the task facing him in Marrakesh tomorrow will not be easy.
Former African player of the year award-winners Osimhen and Lookman have tormented defences during the tournament, scoring three goals each.
Zidane, 27, kept clean sheets in group matches against Sudan and Burkina Faso before being rested against Equatorial Guinea.
He was recalled for a last-16 clash with the Democratic Republic of Congo and once again was unbeaten during a dramatic extra-time victory.
Former Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane, his Spanish wife and another son have been among the crowds in each match Luca played for the Desert Foxes.
“It is special when your family come to watch,” said Luca Zidane, who began his career with Real Madrid B in 2016 and now plays for Spanish second-tier side Granada.
Born in France, Zidane represented his country of birth at five age-limit levels. Under FIFA rules he could also play for Spain or Algeria, where his grandparents were born.
Zidane chose Algeria, debuting in a 2026 World Cup qualifying victory over Uganda last November and, when an injury ruled first choice Alexis Guendoez out of the AFCON, he was promoted.
“I am proud to represent Algeria and play in the Africa Cup of Nations. It is a great experience,” he told reporters.
“I try to be myself, to build my career on my terms, step by step,” he said.
Algeria have been an AFCON bogey team for Nigeria, winning four and drawing two of nine meetings, including a 5-1 drubbing of the Super Eagles en route to winning the 1990 tournament at home. But the current Super Eagles appear to be in the mood to get this one over the Algerians.
The Desert Foxes have put successive group-stage exits behind them under Bosnian coach Vladimir Petkovic and substitute Adil Boulbina unleashed a thunderbolt to eliminate DR Congo.
Nigeria are the 12-goal leading scorers in Morocco with Osimhen, Lookman and Akor Adams forming a potent frontline.
But coach Eric Chelle will be concerned that the three-time champions have conceded four, the most among the eight title hopefuls.
Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner has said that the club would sell captain Marc Guehi this month if his asking price is met.
The England defender is out of contract in the summer and Manchester City have emerged as contenders to sign him during the January transfer window.
Palace blocked a proposed £35m move to Liverpool last summer but risk losing the 25-year-old for nothing at the end of the season.
City’s interest in Guehi has progressed following injuries to defenders Josko Gvardiol and Ruben Dias during Sunday’s draw against Chelsea.
“I’m not naive,” said Glasner, as reported by Tidesports source. “If a massive offer comes from City and Marc wants to do it, it will happen.”
Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid are among the European clubs to have shown an interest in signing Guehi on a free transfer, and he can sign a pre-contract agreement with an overseas club from this month.
“If you’re just valuing sports, everyone in the club will say Marc has to stay,” Glasner added. “The chairman will tell you the same. But it’s not one-dimensional. If you see the financial situation, it’s very important.
“If somebody comes, there will be a moment when the club says ‘now the financial issue is more important than the sports issue’.
“There will be a threshold where the club has to say it will happen, as long as Marc says ‘I want to leave’, because the final decision is always with the player.”
Guehi helped Palace finish 12th last season and win the FA Cup to qualify for Europe for the first time in the club’s history.
The Eagles then won the Community Shield in August, beating Premier League champions Liverpool on penalties, and are 14th in the table and through to the knockout phase play-offs in the Uefa Conference League.
“The chairman rejected many offers in the summer because we want to play a successful season and wanted to win the Community Shield,” Glasner added. “Therefore, Marc is important, and then he rejected the offer.
“The threshold at that time, the money we got offered was not above it. Maybe it was close, but it was not above.”