The former president of the Chinese Super League, soccer’s top competition in China, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Wednesday for accepting bribes and using his position to profit, after other directors were punished for corruption.
A court in central Hubei province ruled that Ma Chenquan must also pay a fine of 800,000 yuan (100,000 euros), the official Global Times newspaper reported on Wednesday.
About a year ago, provincial anti-corruption authorities announced they were investigating Ma for allegedly committing “serious violations of discipline and the law.”
On Tuesday, another court sentenced former Chengdu Football Association president and secretary general Gu Jimiang to six years in prison and a fine of 400,000 yuan (50,530 euros) for embezzlement and accepting and offering bribes.
On the same day, former Chinese Football Association (CFA) competitions director Huang Song was sentenced to seven years in prison for accepting bribes.
Former CFA vice president Li Yu was sentenced on Monday to 11 years in prison for accepting bribes totaling nearly one million yuan (126,700 euros).
In recent years, several Chinese football officials have been prosecuted for corruption, including former Chinese Super League president Liu Jun and even former national football coach Li Tie, one of Chinese football’s legends.
In March last year, the former CFA president from 2019 to 2023, Chen Xiuyuan, was sentenced to life in prison for accepting more than 81 million yuan (10.3 million euros) in bribes over a 13-year career.
The CFA has promised “more openness and transparency” in the face of several cases of corruption within its ranks.
After coming to power in 2012, the current General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CCP) and the country’s president, Xi Jinping, launched an anti-corruption campaign that has seen hundreds of high-ranking Chinese officials convicted of accepting bribes worth millions of dollars.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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