Obsession with gold medals, trophies has led to corruption, admits China’s top sports body
Organisation has pledged to start reforms and change its criteria for what constitutes sporting success after anti-corruption investigators said they had uncovered serious problems
PUBLISHED : Monday, 26 January, 2015, 3:33pm
UPDATED : Monday, 26 January, 2015, 3:33pm
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The former vice chairman of the Chinese Football Association, Nan Yong, was jailed for 10½ years in 2012 for taking bribes. Photo: Xinhua
The government body that administers sport in China has admitted that a win-at-all-costs mentality has led to corruption and it is changing its criteria for what constitutes sporting success.
“Political achievements understood as a gold medal is everything has distorted sportsmanship,” the General Administration of Sport said in a report.
It was published after the government’s anti-corruption agency carried out an inspection of the body and earlier warned that it had found serious problems in the organisation.
The Communist Party authorities are carrying out a sweeping campaign against graft since President Xi Jinping took power in 2012, with hundreds of officials in government departments around the country under investigation.
Sport in China has been hit by several corruption scandals, particularly in football. Senior soccer officials are serving jail terms for bribery and match-fixing.
The sports body said in its report that it would scrap an award mostly based on the number of medals won for those making the biggest contribution at the Olympic and Asian games.
Medal rankings for each province in the national games will also be scrapped.
The administration hopes the measures will help build the “correct perception of political achievements in sports” and develop China’s sports industry on a more balanced track.
Sports officials’ powers will also be curbed with their approval no longer need to stage many sporting events. It is hoped the move will reduce the opportunities for bribery.
A team sent by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection carried out the anti-corruption inspection at the administration between July 28 and September 3 last year.
The head of the inspection team, Zhang Huawei, said in November that it had found serious problems in the sports body and senior officials could be investigated.
Among the issues highlighted was that accreditation given to games, athletes or match officials was not done in regulated or transparent way, he said.
It meant a person could buy a ranking to become a professional athlete.
State-run media reported last year that some government-accredited swimmers had never been in the water and hurdlers were sometimes too out of shape to compete.
Zhang said match-fixing was “quite serious” in some sports events and the commercial development of games was chaotic, lacking necessary regulations and supervision.
Qinghai province also published its report yesterday into the findings of anti-graft inspectors.
It said that prosecutors have checked 701 tip-offs about corruption since August last year, initiating 264 corruption cases and punished 277 officials, including the head of the provincial energy administration.
