China launches corruption probe into football association chief

The head of China’s football association is under investigation by the ruling Communist party’s feared anti-corruption agency, in the latest setback for President Xi Jinping’s ambitions of turning the nation into a sports powerhouse.

Chen Xuyuan, president of the Chinese Football Association, is being investigated by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection for suspected “serious violations of discipline and law”, according to a government statement on Tuesday.

Chinese football has long been a target of corruption investigations. The national team has also perennially disappointed fans, with public frustration mounting after the men’s team failed to qualify for the 2022 Qatar World Cup.

“The poison can only be cured if we scrape all the way to the bone,” the People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist party mouthpiece, wrote about the investigation into Chen. “Chinese football cannot wait any longer.”

Xi, himself a fan of the sport, has vowed to make China a football world power, with ambitions to host and win a World Cup before 2050. China announced ambitious plans in 2021 to increase the number of public pitches and diversify investment in the sport.

But the national men’s team has continued to struggle, qualifying only once for the World Cup in 2002, and losing all three of its matches. Fifa, football’s international governing body, ranks the Chinese men’s team at 80, behind Georgia and Gabon.

“I have already given up any hopes and illusions I used to have in Chinese football,” said Bert Zhou, an entrepreneur in Shenzhen and football fan. “The Chinese football team is simply China’s disgrace.”

Chen, who was also the deputy party secretary of the football association, is the fourth senior football official to face investigation in less than three months, after former player and men’s national team coach Li Tie and Liu Yi, former CFA secretary-general.

In 2013, dozens of senior officials and players were arrested for gambling, bribery and match-fixing, and many were banned, some for life.

“Corruption, such as match-fixing, fraud and doping are . . . one of the main barriers hindering the healthy development of Chinese football teams,” said Zhu Jiangnan, an expert in Chinese corruption at the University of Hong Kong.

But she pointed out that other national teams, including top-ranked Brazil, had also suffered “rather serious corruption scandals” and that Chen’s arrest “shows that corruption control in China covers all areas”.

Even junior leagues are not immune to controversy. Authorities last year probed match-fixing allegations against an under-15 team from the youth academy of distressed property developer Evergrande.

An economic slowdown in China has added to the pressure on football teams, some of which are backed by wealthy developers hit by a slump in the property sector.

The lack of funds and Xi’s draconian zero-Covid policy, which he abandoned at the end of last year, have also spurred an exodus of expatriate players.

But state media have portrayed the investigations as a necessary part of cleaning the game to one day meet the lofty goals of China’s leadership.

“May this be an opportunity for Chinese soccer to ride the wave of this storm and embark on the road to revitalization,” nationalist tabloid Global Times wrote last week regarding the investigation into Li, which was disclosed in November.

The Financial Times was unable to reach Chen for comment. The CFA did not respond to a request for comment. The General Administration of Sport of China, which oversees the CFA, declined to comment on the investigation.