The chairman of the Chinese Football Association Chen Xuyuan has been arrested and placed under investigation for corruption. Analysts believe it’s an indication that the “whole nation” system adopted by the regime to develop the sports sector has devolved into a hotbed of corruption.
Numerous leading figures in Chinese football have been sacked since former football head coach Li Tie was placed under investigation in November 2022.
On Feb. 14, China announced the investigation of Chen by the national and Hubei provincial discipline and supervision bodies.
Upon the announcement, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) echoed the decision with its firm support of the investigation on Feb. 15.
Storm in Chinese Football
The latest series of purges in national football began in late 2022.On Nov. 26, 2022, Hubei provincial discipline body announced the investigation of former football head coach Li over suspected serious violations of law.
A little under two months later, on Jan. 19, 2023, Hubei announced that Liu Yi, former secretary-general of CFA, was under investigation over suspicion of serious violations of the law.
On the same day, Hubei also announced that Chen Yongliang, executive deputy secretary-general of CFA and head of the national team management department, was under investigation over suspicion of serious violations of discipline and law.
The Hubei authorities’ investigation also included other significant figures in the Hubei football field, such as Meng Jing, director and co-president of the Shanghai-listed real estate developer China Fortune Land Development Co., Ltd. (CFLD).
Meng was detained for criminal investigation, according to the company’s public notification on the evening of Feb. 14. 2023.
He entered the CFLD in 2000, and by 2019, he was promoted the director and co-president of the company.
His case was said to be associated with the investigation of China’s former head coach Li Tie.
Li Tie
Li joined the coaching team in July 2015. After a year with Li as head coach, the team achieved a winning rate of 55.6 percent, jumping from a second-tier team to top tier before Li stepped down in Aug. 2016.However, the team allegedly bought off opponents in the last five rounds of the game.
Li was then hired as the head coach of the Wuhan Club between 2017 and 2020.
According to Chinese media reports, Li’s personal annual salary was 12 million yuan ($1.6 million) during his days coaching the Wuhan Club in 2018 and 2019. After he became the head coach of the China National Team in 2020, the Club managed to continue his annual salary at 30 million yuan ($4.38 million).
Before Li was investigated, Tian Xudong, chairman of the Wuhan Club, was arrested. Wuhan Club was dissolved on Jan. 25. 2023.
Along with the investigation of Li’s case, more than 20 football players and managers have been implicated.
Corrupt ‘Whole Nation’ System
Corruption in Chinese football is considered a microcosm of the regime’s so-called “whole nation” system for running sports.Commentator Dongfang Jue once explained that China adopted the “whole nation” system with the mission to achieve the highest number of gold medals by engaging the entire nation.
The system violates the Olympic spirit and mutilates athletes. It does not improve the Chinese people’s physique but breeds sports bureaucrats, he said.
Chinese author Chu Han also criticized in his article, calling the “whole nation” system a political tool for corrupt officials to gain power while sacrificing the entire Chinese populace with their selfish and black-boxed operation.
In his article titled “Reflections on the Whole Nation system and the Way Out", Chu stated that the biggest drawback of the system lies in “the sports of a few people and the political achievements of an even smaller few, at the cost of the majority of the nation.”
It’s noteworthy that among the Chinese football scandals, the 2009 football match-fixing scandal resulted in 10 and a half years of imprisonment for Xie Yalong and Nan Yong, two ex-heads of China’s football league, for accepting bribes.
In 2015, two more corruption scandals involving Chinese sports took place. Xiao Tian, a deputy sports minister and also a member of China’s Olympic committee, was investigated and jailed for ten years and six months; Pan Zhichen, China’s volleyball chief, was sacked and then sentenced to four years in prison for taking bribes.
