Unusual, this round of football anti-corruption storm
Recently, with the fall of Liu Jun, all six chairmen of China Super League since its establishment have been investigated.
Since the investigation of former head coach Li Tie of the Chinese men's football team in November last year, a new round of anti-corruption storm has swept the Chinese football scene. In the past year, the storm has been raging, involving not only player gambling, club executives bribery, but also corrupt elements from the Chinese Football Association and even the General Administration of Sport.
On September 7th, the Governor of Chang'an Street invited Wei Changdong, Executive Director of the China Anti Corruption and Legal Research Association, Professor of the Discipline Inspection and Supervision College of East China University of Political Science and Law, and Wang Yang, a sports reporter for Beijing Daily, to analyze the strongest anti-corruption campaign in football history during the live broadcast of the "Governor's Reception Hall".
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What are the differences in anti-corruption in this round of football?
Chang'an Street Governor: Compared to the previous anti-corruption storms in Chinese football since the new century, what are the new changes and characteristics of this round of anti-corruption in football? Can it be said that it is the most intense anti-corruption storm?
Wang Yang: Compared to the anti-corruption campaign in 2009, this round of football anti-corruption has the following three prominent characteristics: firstly, the officials involved are of a higher level; Secondly, there are more institutions or lines responsible for investigating and handling cases; Thirdly, the amount involved is larger.
From the perspective of the level of officials involved in the case, the anti-corruption campaign in football in 2009 emphasized more on anti gambling. At that time, the highest level officials handled by the Chinese Football Association were two full-time vice chairmen, Xie Yalong and Nan Yong. However, among the officials who have fallen behind in this round of anti-corruption, not only Chen Xuyuan, former chairman of the Chinese Football Association, but also Du Zhaocai, former deputy director of the General Administration of Sport of China. The level of officials involved in the case is significantly higher than that of the previous round of anti-corruption.
From the perspective of the institutions or routes responsible for investigating and handling cases, in 2009, most of them were mainly handled by the Liaoning Provincial Public Security Department, due to the investigation of gambling and match fixing. The first batch of internal personnel of the Chinese Football Association to be investigated were four "famous guards": Lu Jun, Huang Junjie, Zhou Weixin, and Wan Daxue. And this time, it is a combination of multiple lines. For example, former head coach of the Chinese national football team, Li Tie, as well as Chen Xuyuan and Liu Yi, were all taken away by Hubei Provincial Public Security and Discipline Inspection personnel; Hao Wei, the head coach of Shandong Mount Taishan Club, Jin Jingdao, a member of the team, and Sun Junhao, a foreign aid, were investigated by the Liaoning police; Du Zhaocai and former vice chairman of the Chinese Football Association, Yu Hongchen, were led by the disciplinary inspection agency to investigate. This also fully demonstrates the identity of the individuals involved and the complexity of the case.
In terms of the amount involved, in 2009, the highest amount involved by Xie Yalong and Nan Yong was around 1.2 million yuan. With the professional leagues in China entering the "golden era" after 2011, clubs spend billions of yuan every season to purchase players, and the Football Association receives hundreds of millions of yuan in transfer adjustment fees. Therefore, the ability of Football Association officials and Chinese Football Manager Li Tie to monetize their identity power is even greater. It is not surprising that the amount involved in the case is more than the previous "multiple zeros". In the 2009 football anti-corruption storm, 57 football association officials, players, and referees were ultimately imprisoned. This time, based on the current scale and intensity, it should not be less than the number of people from last time.
Wei Changdong: From the perspectives of criminal law and criminology, the previous round of anti-corruption in football can be referred to as "scattered style", which means that the place, team, and personnel involved are relatively scattered, while this time it shows "group style" and "chain style".
"Group style" refers to the corruption centered around a certain level of personnel, affecting all levels associated with the perpetrator. "Chain style" is a prominent type of criminal pattern in criminology, which is based on the spontaneous relationship between criminal acts, resulting in all links involved in football possibly becoming part of the criminal chain.
In criminology, when it comes to the degree of crime, there is a measurement indicator called the intensity of corruption, which is the severity of corruption. Based on the information we have observed so far, it is evident that the amount of crime may indeed increase exponentially from 1 person being prosecuted to 14 people being prosecuted. The increase in the intensity of corruption caused by the combination of group style and chain style is worthy of our attention.
As of now, 14 officials have announced that they have been investigated in this round of anti-corruption in football. Drafted by: Li Junyao
What are the corrupt methods used by fallen individuals?
Since the investigation of Li Tie in November 2022, 14 people in the football field have officially announced their downfall, including former head coach of the men's football team, senior officials of the Chinese Football Association, relevant personnel of the Chinese Super League, and former deputy director of the General Administration of Sport of China.
Chang'an Street Magistrate: What power spaces are hidden behind these identities that breed corruption?
Wei Changdong: We can divide these 14 people into four basic types based on their identity types.
The first category is the General Administration of Sport of China. The General Administration of Sport of China is a state agency within the national institutions of our country. Staff members in state organs, especially deputy directors who hold leadership positions and engage in management, may use various means including their organizational and supervisory responsibilities, such as how football should be developed and how funds should be handled.
The second type is the Chinese men's football team. For the head coach of the men's football team, he may have the right to join the team, advance, cooperate, and even have the right to decide the appearance of players in specific matches. The head coach of the men's football team exercises management responsibilities in public sports organizations, including managing members, managing teams, managing cooperation, managing the economy, and related reward distribution, which may have room for corruption.
The third type is the Chinese Football Association. The Chinese Football Association is a legal entity and a public welfare social organization. It conducts certain organizational management in certain specific fields according to legal provisions or government commissions, including economic activity guidance, decision-making, supervision, and may also involve athlete ratings. In the list of 14 fallen players, personnel from the Chinese Football Association account for a considerable proportion, including the President of the Football Association, the Director of the Discipline Committee, the Minister of the Competition Department, and others. This indicates that these departments clearly have certain management functions and may have a large space to exercise their authority in conducting power and money transactions.
The fourth category is Chinese Super League companies. Zhongchao Company is a typical socio-economic organization, with different levels established according to the company's governance structure, and different people exercising different responsibilities. The specific powers they exercise, such as advertising cooperation with which parties, commercial promotion cooperation with whom personnel, etc., are all implemented by specific company personnel with the help of corresponding powers, creating operational space for the breeding of corruption.
Dividing the above-mentioned personnel into four different identities within the organization, it can be found that some of them are departments with corresponding functions granted by the state or law, while others are purely social organizations or even ordinary commercial legal persons. Therefore, in the chain of corruption crimes, the means they exercise also vary greatly.
Why should we crack down on football corruption with high pressure?
Chinese football, especially men's football, is known as the national football because it carries too much attention and expectations from the people. In this sense, anti-corruption in football goes beyond football. Returning football to its rightful form should have a great role in purifying sports and social atmosphere. The charm of sports is not only the joy it brings us, but also the inheritance of the spirit of sports. We always say that the foundation of developing Chinese football lies in the development of campus football, but the negative impact of football corruption on young people may be even deeper. This is one of the reasons why sports corruption, represented by football, is deeply abhorrent.
Chang'an Street Governor: Why should we crack down on football corruption with high pressure? What are the hazards of football corruption?
Wei Changdong: The occurrence of corruption is not only a distortion of power operation, but more importantly, under this distortion, people's values, social orientation, and correct judgments may deviate from their rightful trajectory.
We should pay attention to the issue of corruption in football, not only to whether public power has been abused, but also to the problems behind corruption - it causes some people's means of obtaining benefits to completely distort people's value judgments, thereby causing the overall collapse of the social youth culture system. Don't let corruption make many people in our society believe that "this is my way of life, it is one of the main ways for me to gain social recognition, and it is one of the main ways for my economic interests to be realized.". I think it is precisely based on this consideration that the high-pressure crackdown on football corruption is not only aimed at corrupt officials and related personnel, but also plays a practical and important role in shaping the culture of Chinese youth society.
Today, there are still many people who devote great attention and expectations to the development of Chinese football. This expectation must be evaluated with a correct set of values in order to truly make sports an important support and force for social progress.
Chang'an Street Governor: What are the prospects for the anti-corruption achievements in this round of football?
Wang Yang: As a journalist who reports on football projects, I have dealt with many officials, players, and coaches in the football field. I hope they are all clean, and the black sheep are very few.
If we compare the current problems in football to a house filled with dust, I hope that this anti-corruption storm can clean up every corner and bring a pure land of football to all practitioners, fans, and everyone who loves this sport.
On this basis, we hope that managers can steadily promote the construction of professional leagues in accordance with the development laws of football, so that our football level can steadily improve and all those who love Chinese football can not be discouraged. I think that's enough.
