Another important figure of Chinese soccer has been brought down, according to a statement from the Hubei Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection on Tuesday night, as the anti-corruption storm of Chinese soccer keeps deepening.
This time it was Chen Xuyuan, president of Chinese Football Association (CFA), who was put under investigation on suspicion of serious violations of law and discipline. On the same day, China Fortune Land Development Co said that its co-president Meng Jing had been detained. Meng is a former board member of the Hebei Football Club.
On Wednesday, the CFA issued a statement saying that it firmly supports the disciplinary and supervisory authorities to conduct an investigation into Chen Xuyuan.
The investigation of Chen fully reflects the determination and zero tolerance in the fight against corruption, the CFA said in the statement, and it pledged to create upright soccer ecology and further the reform and development of Chinese soccer.
Since the investigation of Li Tie, former head coach of China men’s national soccer team in November 2022 for serious violations of the law, a number of players, managers and officials have been put under investigation, including former secretary general of the CFA Liu Yi and executive vice secretary general of the CFA and head of the national team management department Chen Yongliang.
The investigation of several soccer figures in a row, including high-level officials, shows that the latest anti-corruption storm in Chinese soccer is reaching a peak. Chen’s fall reflects the great determination of this campaign, observers noted.
Public information shows that Chen Xuyuan was a dock worker in Shanghai when he was young. Later, he earned an MBA degree and worked for Shanghai Port Group. Chen, previously serving as deputy director of the Shanghai Port Authority and Party secretary and chairman of Shanghai International Port Co, took the position of CFA president in December 2019.
Every time there is a large-scale anti-corruption move in Chinese soccer, it is always followed by a window of time for progress and healthy development, veteran soccer journalist and former CFA official Wang Dazhao told the Global Times on Wednesday.
“Whether this period can be used and how it can be used is very important for Chinese soccer,” he stressed, adding that it would be a great thing for Chinese soccer if its personnel can make good use of this period.
The Chinese soccer community had experienced an “earthquake” in 2009 because of the match-fixing scandal. Xie Yalong and Nan Yong, the former vice chairman of the CFA and former director of the National Football Management Center, were both arrested and later sentenced to 10.5 years in prison.
Many players were also arrested and several clubs were sentenced to points, fines and relegation. The handling of this match-fixing case was not entirely concluded until 2013.
However, looking back from 10 years later, this huge storm, regretfully, only brought a short period of calm in the Chinese professional league, while the management and competitive level of Chinese soccer was not substantially improved.
“It is important that Chinese soccer should have an effective regulatory mechanism in place to safeguard the efforts of those who are truly trying to contribute to the industry,” he said.
“Over a period of time, a strong regulatory mechanism will ensure the short-term development of soccer to await the long-term progress of multiple factors such as social attitudes, sports culture and economic development, which will enable Chinese soccer to achieve long-term development,” Wang said.
(Global Times)
