Top soccer officials will go on trial behind closed doors at Tieling Intermediate People's Court in Liaoning on Monday in the first hearing of charges related to a corruption scandal, the Shenyang Daily reports.
The judge will first hear testimony from suspect coaches, players and referees before summoning former top officials to the dock, the report said, quoting an official schedule.
The officials include Nan Yong, the former chairman of the China Football Association (CFA), and his two top aides, Yang Yimin and Zhang Jianqiang.
But Nan's predecessor, Xie Yalong , will not appear, according to the schedule. Xie was detained with former national team manager Wei Shaohui and Li Dongsheng, the former director of the CFA referees' committee, in September last year.
Under-the-table deals such as match-fixing hurt mainland soccer for years, but they did not attract the attention of state leaders and the government until national humiliation peaked following a string of World Cup qualifying failures and a display of unsportsmanlike behaviour by the national team at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
Vice-President Xi Jinping promised to clean up and revive Chinese soccer during a trip to Germany in 2009. Businessman Zhong Guojian , general manager of Guangdong Eagles, was arrested less than a month after Xi's return and that quickly led to the fall of more than 40 coaches, players, referees and officials, with Xie's arrest pushing public interest to new heights.