Former China soccer head gets life in jail after sweeping graft crackdown

Beijing: The former chief of China's national soccer association Chen Xuyuan has been sentenced to life in prison for accepting bribes, state media reported on Tuesday, following one of the biggest anti-corruption probes in the sport in years.

The severe sentence for Chen, 67, concludes a probe into high-level soccer officials in China in a sport that has long grappled with corruption, which fans have blamed for the perpetual underperformance of the national team.

In the last episode of a four-part documentary series on corruption aired on national television in January, Chen said the night before he became the chairman of the Chinese Football Association (CFA) in 2019, he had received backpacks each containing 300,000 yuan ($41,568) from two local soccer officials who wanted him to "take care of them".

Confessions of corruption have become a common feature on national television since President Xi Jinping came to power and unleashed a sweeping anti-graft campaign that has also ensnared soccer.

A court in central Hubei province found that Chen took advantage of his various posts from 2010 to 2023, including those linked to the CFA, to aid others in matters regarding project contracting, investment operations and sports events arrangements, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday.

In return, Chen accepted money and valuables worth over 81 million yuan.

Chen has brought "tremendous damage" to China's soccer cause, Xinhua cited the court ruling as saying.

Other soccer officials probed for corruption included Chen Yongliang, former CFA executive deputy secretary-general, Liu Lei, a former director at the Wuhan Football Management Centre, Yu Hongchen, a former vice head of the CFA, and Dong Zheng, a former general manager of the Chinese Super League.

Chen has been sentenced to 14 years in prison, Yu 13 years, and Dong eight years, according to state media on Tuesday.

In 2012, former CFA chairman Xie Yalong and his successor Nan Yong were each sentenced to 10 1/2 years in jail for accepting bribes in the last major soccer corruption dragnet in China.

($1 = 7.2170 Chinese yuan renminbi)