Little hope if no overhaul of soccer administration

'Following Paul the Octopus' spectacular winning streak by correctly 'predicting' the winner of Germany's seven matches at the 2010 World Cup, as well as the final, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) decided to pay big money for Paul to predict when the national team would qualify for the World Cup. After hovering near the box marked with the Chinese national flag for a couple of hours, Paul smashed himself repeatedly against the container until he died. His death prompted a strong protest not only from Germany but also from Fifa (the sport's world governing body), which ordered China to give up football in order to save other octopuses and animal oracles from suicide.'

This popular joke is among thousands circulating on internet forums if one does a Google search for the national soccer team and joke together in Chinese. No other sport can so easily elicit a collective sneer from millions of mainland fans. To a certain extent, it has become a symbol of national shame as the sport has long been bedevilled by allegations of official corruption, match-fixing, gambling and crooked referees.

Diehard fans who believed the sport could not get any worse have been shocked by the recent spate of explosive allegations stemming from a widening national investigation into gambling and match-fixing.

The probe was believed to have begun last year and escalated in January when Nan Yong, the former head of the CFA, was arrested on bribe-taking and match-fixing charges along with two of his top aides at the association. Since then, dozens of officials, referees and players have been detained for questioning.

Earlier this month, Xie Yalong, Nan's predecessor, was also arrested along with the national team's former manager Wei Shaohui, and Li Dongsheng, former director of the mainland soccer referees' committee. This was followed last week by reports that the head of the football association in Chongqing and Li Tong, Nike China's marketing director, were questioned by police. Li, once a star hurdler on the mainland, was later released after being quizzed on Nike's sponsorship of the professional Super League.

The local media has now frequently reported that Cui Dalin, a former deputy minister in charge of soccer at the General Administration of Sport, is implicated in the probe despite his repeated denials.