Former vice-chairman of the Chinese Football Association (CFA) Nan Yong stood trial in the Tieling Intermediate People's Court in Liaoning province yesterday on 17 charges of taking bribes worth 1.48 million yuan (HK$1.82 million), one day after his predecessor Xie Yalong was in court on similar charges.
Four former national squad players and the head of the referees committee also went on trial yesterday.
Nan and Xie, both former vice-chairmen of CFA, are the highest-ranking officials implicated in a sweeping national crackdown on corruption, which has brought down about 50 soccer officials, referees and players. CFA is an official body overlooking the development of the soccer sector.
Prosecutors say once-superstar players - Qi Hong, Shen Si, Li Ming and Jiang Jin - received eight million yuan in bribes in 2003 to fix a league match in which their team, Shanghai Guoji, lost 2-1 to Tianjin Teda. The result helped their rival, Shanghai Shenhua, get the league title.
Former head of the CFA's referees committee Li Dongsheng faces charges of taking bribes of more than 790,000 yuan and of embezzling 60,000 yuan.
However, Li's lawyer told mainland media that the figure was inaccurate, and he questioned the methods used to extract his client's confession.
'They used a special approach,' the lawyer said about the interrogation, without elaborating.