“If you give me 11 billion won, I’ll pick you up”…There was a reason for the Chinese soccer ‘false kick’

The full story of the Chinese soccer corruption case involving high-level officials and former national team coaches has been revealed. It was also revealed that large amounts of money were exchanged to manipulate the results of the game or to select the national team.

According to Hong Xing newspaper and others on Thursday, the Central Discipline Inspection Committee, the National Audit Committee and China’s CCTV recently produced and aired a four-part documentary “Continuous Efforts, In-depth Promotion of Corruption.” Among them, the last installment, “Let’s Promote Three Corruption Together,” revealed details of various corruption cases in the Chinese soccer community.

The documentary features Du Zhaochai, former deputy director of the National Sports Bureau and secretary of the Football Association, Chen Xuyuan, former president of the China Football Association, and Li Tie, former head coach of the Chinese men’s soccer team.

The corruption case in the Chinese soccer community was revealed to the surface when former national team coach Li Tie was investigated by authorities in November 2022. Li Tie was a star who led China to advance to the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup finals when it participated in the World Cup.

Former coach Li Tai, who turned to coach after retirement, was highly praised for successfully leading two teams in the Chinese professional league and was appointed as the national team coach.

However, the background of his good performance in the Super League was a number of match fixing. He joined Hebei Huaxia Xingpu in August 2015 and took charge of the team. With nine games left in the season, Huaxia finished sixth, but the club reportedly asked Li to purchase the opposing team by mobilizing his personal connections.

With the full “back money” deal of the Huashia Singfu club, the club recorded a miracle eight-game winning streak and was promoted to the Super League. Huashia Singfu, acquired by real estate developer Singfu, benchmarked the Evergrande club’s increased brand recognition by investing in soccer and actively participated in the “black deal” to perform well within a short period of time.

In the final match against Shenzhen Yuehung, which had to be tied at the minimum, the club paid a whopping 14 million yuan by buying players from the opposing team. The result was a 2-0 win for Huashia Xingpu.

As he was hired as Wuhan Zuerle’s manager, he became more aggressive in manipulating results. The Wuhan Zuerle club also supported Riete’s manipulation of results and successfully advanced to the third round of the Super League.

Not only individual clubs but also high-ranking soccer figures directly or indirectly participated in the match fixing. There was a widespread atmosphere that encouraged the Football Association to obtain unfair profits several times in the process of scheduling professional games and allocating referees. 슬롯사이트 추천

Former Chinese Football Association Chen Xuyuan recalled, “I didn’t crack down on such an atmosphere because I received money from a professional club,” adding, “If I cracked down on such an atmosphere, it was to hold me back.”

As soon as Chun was elected as the head of the Korea Football Association in August 2019, a local soccer association official handed over 300,000 yuan (about 55 million won) each.

“Football fans can embrace Chinese soccer’s lagging behind, but corruption cannot be forgiven,” former president Chun said while shedding tears in front of the camera. “I want to deeply apologize to football fans, and if I can turn it back, I will never do this again.”

The National Sports Bureau, a superior agency, also played a role in covering up irregularities in the soccer community. At that time, the bureau ordered Du Jiaochai to investigate and deal with the case, saying that match fixing was occurring in the professional soccer league, but the two former deputy directors glossed over it as “investigation and research.”

Corruption scandals in the soccer community spread not only to the professional league but also to the national team. Riete, who had been enjoying streaks of success in the professional league due to game result rigging, lobbied extensively to become the coach of the men’s national soccer team.

Riete promised to “boeun” if he became the coach and asked his team to lobby his team, Jewel. In response, the club awarded 2 million yuan to former president Chen Xuyuan and also gave 1 million yuan to Ryu Yi, the secretary-general of the Football Association at the time.

Li Tie, who was appointed as the national team coach in 2020 after paying 3 million yuan (about 550 million won), started a deal with the Jewel club, which was his “back.” At that time, Li Tie signed a contract worth 60 million yuan (about 11 billion won) with the Jewel club.

CCTV reported that the contract at the time was actually to include four players from the Jewel team on the national team list.

CCTV noted, “When Coach Riete looked forward to leading the national team to the World Cup, many people already knew that such a miracle could not happen.”

In the end, former coach Ritte was replaced on December 3, 2021.

“I regret what I did at the time,” former coach Ritte said, “I should have gone the right way steadily.”