Former soccer officials get prison terms for bribery

Several former soccer officials have received prison sentences in Hubei province for accepting bribes, as China's efforts to root out corruption in the soccer industry continue.

On Wednesday, a court in Xianning, Hubei, sentenced Liu Yi, former secretary-general of the Chinese Football Association, to 11 years in prison after convicting him of bribery.

Liu, who served as the CFA's secretary-general from August 2019 to January 2023, was also fined 3.6 million yuan ($495,000), according to the court ruling.

Liu accepted 1 million yuan offered by Li Tie, former head coach of the Chinese men's team, to support Li in winning the position of head of the national men's soccer selection panel and later the position of head coach of the Chinese men's team, according to a documentary broadcast on China Central Television in January that exposed corruption in the soccer sector. The documentary was produced by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China.

Also on Wednesday, Tan Hai, former head of the referee management department of the CFA, was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison for bribery, according to a verdict issued by a court in Shishou, Hubei.

Tan was also fined 200,000 yuan, with his illegal gains to be turned over to the State treasury, according to the ruling.

Tan became a national-level referee in 1995 and was accredited as an international-level referee by the CFA in 2004. He was named referee of the year in 2011, 2012,2014 and 2015 by the CFA Super League.

On Tuesday, the Shishou court also sentenced Qi Jun, former director of the strategic planning department of the CFA, to seven years in prison for bribery.

Qi, who led China's national men's soccer team during the qualification campaign for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, had served as head of the CFA's competition department for many years before taking charge of its strategic planning department in August 2021.

The sentences are part of an anti-corruption campaign that has swept through Chinese soccer since November 2022, following the investigation of Li, the former head coach of the national men's team.

So far, 13 former soccer officials have been sentenced. Chen Xuyuan, former president of the CFA, received the harshest sentence of life imprisonment in March.

While serving at the CFA, Chen sought unfair benefits for multiple soccer clubs and local soccer associations regarding sporting event arrangements, team promotions in the league and referees' decisions, seriously undermining the order of fair competition and the industry's ecology, and bringing tremendous damage to the country's soccer cause, according to the ruling of a court in Huangshi, Hubei.

The high-profile case of Li was tried in March, and the verdict is pending. The prosecutors accused Li of taking advantage of his position as head coach to accept bribes totaling over 50.89 million yuan from 2019 to 2021. Li pleaded guilty and expressed remorse in court, according to the Xianning court.

Meanwhile, the trial of Du Zhaocai, former Party chief and a vice-president of the CFA, is ongoing. Du, who is also the former deputy head of the General Administration of Sport of China, stood trial in August at a court in Wuhan, Hubei.

Between 2012 and 2022, Du allegedly took advantage of various positions he held to assist relevant organizations and individuals in matters such as tournament hosting, personnel arrangements and player transfers, according to prosecutors.