Beijing, April 4 (Zhongxin Net) -- On the last working day before the start of the May Day holiday, Chinese football, which is in the midst of an anti-corruption storm, has once again become the focus of attention.

According to the news on the website of the Hubei Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision on the evening of the 28th, Li Yuyi, former vice chairman of the Chinese Football Association, is suspected of serious violations of the law and is currently under supervision and investigation by the discipline inspection and supervision team of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the State Supervision Commission stationed in the State General Administration of Sport and the Hubei Provincial Supervision Commission.

Accompanying him in reporting the investigation was Ma Chengquan, the former chairman of the Chinese Super League Co., Ltd. It is worth noting that both have retired before, but they are still involved in the anti-corruption storm in football.

On November 11 last year, Li Tie, the former manager of the national football team, reported that he was investigated. Since his count, in just 26 days, 153 people in football have been reported to have been investigated.

The anti-corruption campaign in Chinese football has not pressed the "stop button", but has been deepening.

Data map: Li Yuyi. Image source: Osports All Sports Images

He was retired at the time of investigation

Li Yuyi is 68 years old. After the 2019 Football Congress of the Chinese Football Association completed the big change, he gradually faded from the front of the stage, and rarely appeared in the past few years after his retirement, and rarely gave interviews.

According to public information, on March 2015, 3, according to the deployment of the "Overall Plan for the Reform and Development of Chinese Football", the State Council approved the establishment of the inter-ministerial joint conference system for football reform and development of the State Council, with Li Yuyi as the deputy director. He was then appointed as the Vice-President of the Football Association at the 23 Football Congress.

In 2017, after Yu Hongchen, the former vice chairman of the Chinese Football Association (who was previously reported to be investigated), was transferred to the Athletics Management Center, the top management of the Chinese Football Association was re-divided, and Vice Chairman Li Yuyi replaced Yu Hongchen in charge of the professional league executive board, the Chinese Super League company, and also in charge of the competition department, youth department and youth committee.

Before joining the Chinese Football Association, Li Yuyi served as the director of the Shanghai Municipal Sports Bureau and the secretary of the Jinshan District Party Committee, and was in charge of Shanghai sports for many years.

Data map: Li Yuyi. Image source: Osports All Sports Images

Zeng boasted that the Chinese Super League would become the sixth largest league

During his tenure as vice president of the Football Association, Li Yuyi, who was in charge of the league, publicly set a number of goals, most notably to make the Chinese Super League the sixth largest league in the world.

At the 2019 Club Access Work Conference, Li Yuyi said that the Chinese Football Association's access work should work towards the implementation of five major goals, one of which is to make all levels of leagues into Asia's first-class leagues, and the Chinese Super League continue to move towards the sixth largest league in the world.

On the occasion of the second anniversary of the foot reform in 2017, Li Yuyi said at the symposium that the 94 tasks of the foot reform plan have been fully implemented, <>% of the tasks have achieved phased results, all goals and tasks are continuously deepening, and the first step of the "three-step" strategy has been steadily taken.

"The second step is to significantly increase the youth football population, the level of professional league organization and competition to reach the top of Asia, the national men's football team to be among the top in Asia, and the women's football team to return to the ranks of the world's top teams." At that time, Li Yuyi said so.

Li Yuyi, former vice chairman of the Chinese Football Association. Image source: Osports All Sports Images

Catch youth football

Li Yuyi also focused on youth football during his work at the Football Association and promoted youth training reform.

Before 2016, the number of U-series youth competitions of the Chinese Football Association was seriously insufficient. In 2016, the Youth Committee of the Chinese Football Association adopted the "Youth Home and Away Weekend League System". In 2017, under the promotion of the Chinese Football Association and the National School Football Office, the Youth Super League was officially unveiled, with 87 teams participating in the first year, and the number of youth team competitions doubled.

In the 2018 season, a total of 259 teams participated in the Youth Super League, and in the 2019 season, 402 teams signed up for the Youth Super League. With the increase in teams, the total size of the tournament increased from more than 2017 in 500 to nearly 2019,3000 in <>.

Li Yuyi, former vice chairman of the Chinese Football Association.

In addition, Li Yuyi also introduced the U23 policy in the league during his tenure, which caused great controversy. In order to comply with the rules, many clubs symbolically let Under-23 players start, and then hastily replace them a few minutes later.

In the context of "going through the motions", the value and income of U23 players rose sharply, which added another fire to the gold dollar football at that time.

But at this moment, looking back at the national team lineup in the past few years, it is still the world of veterans, and there are very few U23 players who can really rely on strength.

After 6 years in operation, this policy was finally lifted before the start of the season.

After retiring, Li Yuyi said frankly in an interview with the media that the construction of our entire youth training system and the development of youth football should first and foremost be patient, rather than the idea of quick success, as if we are about to produce results now. This kind of short-term thinking will affect the development of Chinese football, and it often changes policies, which is also not a good practice.

Since then, Li Yuyi has rarely appeared. When he reappeared in the public eye, his name was already written on the bulletin. (End)