Soccer boss says game can be saved

The new boss of scandal-ridden Chinese soccer vowed yesterday to put it back on the world stage as a sporting powerhouse by taking women's soccer back to the top and turning the men's team into one of Asia's finest.

With years of management experience in sports ranging from boxing to water sports, 55-year-old Wei Di was parachuted in to head the troubled Chinese Football Association (CFA) 10 days ago after three former leaders were implicated in corruption investigations in the biggest scandal to hit Chinese soccer - which was already considered a source of embarrassment to the nation.

'I admit I'm just a transition character,' Wei said yesterday. 'But I'll try my best to do something concrete in the next five years ... to bring the male soccer team back to tier one in Asia, and the female soccer team back to tier one in the world.' Match-fixing, illegal gambling, triad connections, bribes, kickbacks - the list of vices plaguing the Chinese Super League (CSL) and the soccer industry in general goes on.

The national men's team has also missed out on qualifying for the World Cup finals twice since making its maiden appearance at the tournament in 2002.

Even President Hu Jintao, Vice-President Xi Jinping and state councillor Liu Yandong have publicly voiced their concerns about the scandals and the baffling failure of Chinese soccer - after all, China won 51 gold medals at the Beijing Olympics in almost every other category of mainstream sport.

Wei listed three main directions for what he hoped to achieve during his term: building a professional league, nurturing youth soccer and raising the standard of the national team, which 'has to be at its lowest'. Wei said all three were related, but the standard of the league was of utmost importance because it was already a matter that touched on 'social stability'.

'Soccer is no longer just a sport. It has become a very unique social phenomena,' Wei said.