CFA should be booted out for breaking independence rules, say critics

Critics of soccer on the mainland claim the Chinese Football Association (CFA) is in breach of the rules of Fifa, world soccer's governing body, and should be suspended.

They claim China fails to comply with Article 17 of Fifa's constitution because it is not independent of the government and does not elect its senior officials - including the new president, Cui Dalin, the former deputy minister of the General Administration of Sports, a government ministry.

'It's really disappointing that the world governing body turns a blind eye to the illegitimacy of the CFA,' says David Yang, the editor of China Sports Review.

However, China's national sports law prohibits the independent election of sports bodies. Appointments within and to the CFA are decided by the General Administration of Sports (GAS), which in turn answers to the State Council, China's cabinet. The GAS also appoints the chiefs of provincial football associations - organisations that, under Fifa law, are supposed to answer to the CFA. Instead, they answer directly to their respective provincial sports' departments.

This complex, top-down approach means that there is a lack of internal and external scrutiny over important issues such as how talent is identified and developed, how to generate revenue to be ploughed back into grass-roots soccer and how to weed out the corruption that blights the game's reputation.

'Instead of there being procedures to guarantee independence of the CFA, as Fifa law demands, there are instead procedures to make sure the government remains in control of football,' argues Rowan Simons, author and chairman of China Club Football, an independent company seeking to develop the amateur game on the mainland.