Former Chinese Super League president sentenced to ten years in prison

A court has sentenced former Chinese Super League (CSL) President Ma Chenquan sentenced to 10 years in prison for accepting bribes and he exploited his position to make a profit – in a week in which other Chinese football officials were convicted of corruption.

A court in the central province of Hubei ruled that Ma must also pay a fine of 800,000 yuan (112,000 dollars, 100,000 euros), reports the local Global Times.

The province’s anti-corruption authorities announced about a year ago that They had launched an investigation into Ma’s actionswho was suspected of having committed “serious violations of discipline and law”.

On Tuesday, another court sentenced the former president and general secretary of the Chengdu Central City Football Association, Gu Jimiang, to six years and a fine of 400,000 yuan (50,530 euros) for embezzlement and bribery.

On the same day, the former competition director of the Chinese Football Association (CFA) Huang Song was sentenced to seven years for accepting bribes in prison.

On Monday, Former CFA Vice President Li Yuyi was sentenced to eleven years in prison for accepting bribes totaling around one million yuan (126,700 euros).

In recent years Numerous Chinese football officials are being investigated for corruptionincluding the former president of the Chinese Super League, Liu Jun, and even the former national coach Li Tie, one of China's football legends.

Last March Chen Xuyuan, The former CFA president from 2019 to 2023 was sentenced to life imprisonment for accepting bribes totaling over 81 million yuan (10.3 million euros) over the course of his 13-year career.

Last October, the CFA promised “more openness and transparency” in light of numerous corruption cases within its ranks.

After seizing power in 2012 the current General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CCP) and President of the country, Xi Jinping launched a campaign against corruption in which numerous high-ranking Chinese officials were convicted of accepting millions of dollars in bribes.