As courts in the northeastern province of Liaoning delivered verdicts yesterday against former high-ranking soccer officials and star players, a three-year campaign to purge corruption from the sport appeared to be finally nearing its endgame.
Two former bosses of the Chinese Football Administrative Centre (CFAC), Xie Yalong and his successor, Nan Yong , were both sentenced to 10? years in jail and ordered to pay 200,000 yuan (HK$245,000) in fines for taking bribes.
Additionally, four national team players, including Qi Hong and Shen Si , key players in the mainland's only trip to the World Cup finals, in 2002, received up to six years in jail for match-fixing.
They joined several peers who were previously convicted of similar crimes.
Xinhua reported that the nationwide crackdown on soccer corruption started in 2009 and has resulted in 56 high-level soccer officials, top players, famous referees and club officials receiving prison sentences. An earlier Xinhua story said that more than 200 people had been arrested.
'It's more important that authorities loosen their control on professional soccer in the future and play a simple supervisory role,' said Wu Celi , co-writer of Inside Chinese Soccer.
Wu also said he didn't think the campaign was finished, noting that, under the current system, the CFAC runs the professional leagues while also supervising itself, which he said was the main reason corruption existed in the sport.