What’s new: A former vice president of the Chinese Football Association (CFA) is among four ex-soccer officials who have been sentenced for bribery this week, following the country’s sweeping anti-corruption crackdown on the sport.
Li Yuyi, 69, has been sentenced to 11 years of prison for bribery, according to a Monday statement from Jinzhou Intermediate People’s Court in Central China’s Hubei province. Li previously pleaded guilty to accepting more than 12 million yuan ($1.7 million) in bribes when he stood trial in March.
The sentencing was announced more than one year after Li became a target of the wide-ranging graft probe that has ensnared more than a dozen senior soccer officials and executives since November 2022.
What’s more: Huang Song, former head of the CFA’s competition department, was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment for accepting bribes by a separate court in Songzi, Hubei, on Tuesday. He was charged in March with receiving over 6 million yuan in bribes.
Two other local-level soccer officials also received their sentences this week. Gu Jianming, former president of the Chengdu Football Association in Southwest China’s Sichuan province, was sentenced to six years behind bars for embezzlement, and giving and accepting bribes, Tongcheng County People’s Court in Hubei said on Tuesday.
Fu Xiang, former director of the Wuhan Football Sport Management Center in Hubei’s provincial capital, was sentenced to 11 years for taking and offering bribes, a local court in Jiayu county in Hubei announced Monday.
Contact reporter Kelly Wang (jingzhewang@caixin.com) and editor Jonathan Breen (jonathanbreen@caixin.com)
