Corruption said to be rampant in China’s sports sector
Anti-graft investigation finds top rankings can be bought and match-fixing 'quite serious' at some events, official says
PUBLISHED : Monday, 03 November, 2014, 11:40am
UPDATED : Monday, 03 November, 2014, 7:17pm
Stephen Chen [email protected]
Liu Peng, director of the sports administration, said the investigation had conducted a “thorough body check” on his agency and taught officials there a “deep lesson”. Photo: Xinhua
Corruption is rampant in China’s sports sector, and some senior government officials with the top national sports authorities will be investigated, according to anti-graft inspectors.
Zhang Huawei, leader of a disciplinary inspection team dispatched by the central government to the General Administration of Sport, said on Saturday it has heard many complaints about corruption, and some valuable leads were handed over to anti-graft authorities for further investigation.
China sacked at least six senior officials and players for match-fixing and bribery in soccer games two years ago, but the latest official statement suggested that the problem was more widespread.
Zhang’s remarks, posted on the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China yesterday, revealed details on the extent of corruption in the sports management sector.
The official credentials given to a game, athlete or referee were often “not regulated, not open, not transparent”, he said.
A person could “buy” a top match ranking to become a professional athlete. Some government accredited swimmers had never been in the water and hurdlers were sometimes too out of shape to actually compete, according to mainland media reports earlier this year.
The practice was particularly common among high school students with their parents often providing the money, because being a professional athlete would bring additional points in the national college entrance exam.
Anti-graft investigators have found that some government accredited swimmers had not even been in the water. Photo: AFP
Zhang said that match-fixing was “quite serious” at some sports events, and the commercial development of games was “chaotic” without necessary regulations and supervision.
While far from the only country involved in sports scandals, officials in China enjoy much greater power than their overseas counterparts due to a top-down management system that was created during the planned economy period to screen and train for medalists in international competitions, Zhang pointed out.
The General Administration of Sport had “highly concentrated power” with most officials having a second job in business with “sophisticated interest networks”, Zhang said.
He urged powerful measures be taken against corruption issues such as regulating sports-related business activities and punishing match-fixing with severity and transparency.
Liu Peng, director of the sports administration, said Zhang’s team had conducted a “thorough body check” on his agency and taught officials there a “deep lesson”. He said they would follow the inspectors’ advice to address the corruption issues, according to the CCDI article.
In 2012, two former heads of the Chinese Football Association, a former national team captain, the country’s top referee and at least four former national team players were convicted of taking bribes and sentenced to prison.
