Chinese football boss in turn in the sights of justice
Chen Xuyuan, head of the Chinese Football Association, in Shanghai on October 24, 2019 (from a video).
PA
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
Big cleaning in football in China.
According to state media, the president of the Chinese football association is under investigation for "
serious violations of discipline and the law
".
A similar investigation was launched against the national team coach late last year.
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With our correspondent in Beijing,
Stéphane Lagarde
Nothing is going well in Chinese football.
China did not qualify for the World Cup in Qatar, and the hearts of the supporters swing between anger and disgust, like this VTC driver.
A supporter of Beijing Guoan, the capital's football club, he no longer expects anything from the national team.
"
I don't trust the Chinese team,"
he said.
I think Japan are the best team in Asia.
Chinese football environment is too dark, it's full of dirty money
!
»
The dirty agent is one of the plagues of clubs in China.
Chen Xuyuan, the head of the China Football Federation (CFA), and
Li Tie
, the former manager of the men's national team, are suspected of "
serious violations
" of discipline and the
law
, terms generally used in China in corruption cases.
Other wounds: fraud - therefore match-fixing - and doping, so many "
tumors that harm
" the development of the game on the continent, according to comments made by Du Zhaocai, the deputy director of the general administration of sports of China Last year.
Gold transfers from foreign internationals have stopped with the pandemic, club coffers are empty.
A big spring cleaning is therefore launched at the request of the supporters, in the forefront of which Xi Jinping, the Chinese president who, ten years ago, described himself as a football fan, dreaming of hosting and winning a World
Cup
. world at home.
Back then, Guangzhou Evergrande had just won the Asian Confederation Cup.
China, which was due to host the Asian Cup this year, was forced to withdraw from the organization due to the "zero Covid" policy, - lifted last December - and the poor results of the national team.
►Also read Football: China gives up hosting the Asian Cup next year
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