A CHINESE court sentenced Huang Song, former director of the competition department of the Chinese Football Association, to seven years in prison for taking bribes yesterday.

Huang was fined 600,000 yuan (US$84,122) and his illegal gains from bribery will be recovered and turned over to the state treasury, according to a statement issued by the People’s Court of Songzi City in Hubei Province.

On the same day, the People’s Court of Tongcheng County in Hubei sentenced Gu Jianming, formerly president and secretary-general of the Chengdu Football Association, to six years in prison for embezzlement, taking and giving bribes.

Gu was fined 400,000 yuan with the money he embezzled returned to the victim units and illegal gains from the bribery recovered and turned over to the state treasury, according to a court statement.

In separate cases, two other former soccer officials were each sentenced to 11 years in prison on Monday in Hubei Province.

Li Yuyi, former vice chairman of the Chinese Football Association, was sentenced to 11 years and fined 1 million yuan. Prosecutors revealed that Li exploited his various positions from 2004 to 2021 in Shanghai’s Jinshan District, the Chinese Football Association and the Chinese Football Association Super League to do favors for others, including assisting football clubs facing relegation and helping companies secure construction projects. He was found guilty of accepting over 12 million yuan in bribes for his efforts.

Also on Monday, Fu Xiang, former director of the Wuhan Football Sport Management Center, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for embezzlement and bribery. He was also fined 1.4 million yuan. The courts ordered the recovery of the embezzled funds and the confiscation of assets obtained through bribery.

The sentences are part of a broader anti-corruption campaign that has swept through Chinese soccer since November 2022, following the investigation of Li Tie, former head coach of the national men’s soccer team. Over a dozen high-ranking officials have since been implicated.

In March, the trials of five corruption cases related to soccer were announced, including the sentencing of Chen Xuyuan, former chairman of the Chinese Football Association, to life imprisonment for accepting bribes worth over 81 million yuan.

Despite the progress made in the anti-corruption efforts, Xi Hua, head of the discipline inspection and supervision team stationed at the General Administration of Sport, said at a meeting in March that significant issues remain, including the exploitation for personal gain of opportunities in commercial cooperation, equipment procurement and event organization.

(Xinhua, China Daily)