China jails former football officials over corruption

Feb 18, 2012, 10:48 GMT

Beijing - A former senior Chinese football official and a referees' director received long prison sentences on bribery and match-fixing charges Saturday.

Yang Yimin, former deputy head of the Chinese Football Association, was sentenced to 10 years and six months, while the association's former referees director, Zhang Jianqiang, received a 12-year jail term, Xinhua news agency reported.

China's communist government has led a drive to clean up corruption which has damaged the reputation of the national league.

A Chinese court on Thursday sentenced four top football referees to up to seven years in prison after convicting them of corruption and match-fixing.

Sentencing was expected on a total of 39 people accused of involvement in match-fixing.

Yang Yimin accepted bribes of more than 1 millian yuan (157,000 dollars), the trial in Tieling in the north-eastern Liaoning province was told.

Yang would not appeal the sentence, Yang's lawyer Wang Shujing was quoted as saying.

'The punishment isn't harsh,' Wang said. 'Yang took bribes as a government official and the harshest punishment for taking bribes as a public servant could be the death penalty.'

Former referees director Zhang received more than 2 million yuan from a number of clubs in connection with match-fixing. He took money among others from Shanghai Shenhua to help them win the 2003 league title, Xinhua said.