The former president of the Chinese Football Association has been sentenced to life in prison amid a wide-ranging crackdown on sports corruption. (More Football News)
Chinese courts on Tuesday 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 financia𒀰l crimes.
Chen Xuyuan, the former CFA president, received a life sentence for helping fix matches and usiꦍng his various positions to commit financiಌal crimes, state media reported.
Xinhua reported that all of🐟 Chen's personal property would be confiscated and his illegal gains would b😼e 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 ba♛ck 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 lౠargest economy.
China's domestic soccer leagues have long struggled with corr♉uption 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 p♎layers and referees to produce an outcome that benefits gambling syndicates.
There have also been allegations that payments were made toﷺ 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 occupie♔s 19th place.
Xi Jinpi🥂ng, China's head of state and leader of the ruling Communist Party, had previously announced plans to ma🍸ke China a football superpower through the enrollment of children in newly constructed academies aided by the construction of thousands of new pitches.
✃An economic slowdownꦰ and government involvement in sports, culture and private business have weighed on the potential success of those goals.
