Thu, December 22, 2011
TIELING, Liaoning Province, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Another former Chinese soccer official and a batch of club managers and referees stood trials at local courts in northeast China's Liaoning Province Tuesday and Wednesday, said sources from the Supreme People's Court.
The Intermediate People's Court of Tieling and the Intermediate People' s Court of Dandong, both in Liaoning Province, started trials to these people, amid the weeklong trial sessions initiated by the country in an effort to clean up its soccer circle.
Among the suspects on trials, Yang Yimin was accused of taking 1.25 million yuan (198,104 U.S. dollars) in bribes from more than 20 companies and individuals, by using his position as deputy director of Chinese Football Administration Center between 1997 and the end of 2009, said the procuratorate of Tieling.
Tieling procuratorate also said that Wang Po, former general manager of Tibet Huitong club, accepted more than one million yuan (156,000 U.S. dollars) in bribes on several occasions to help others by fixing matches and gambling in 2006.
The procuratorate of Dandong accused Huang Junjie, one of the three nominees for the best referee of the year 2009, of accepting 1.48 million yuan and 100,000 HK dollars' bribery from concerning clubs or individuals 21 times between 2005 and 2009.
Lu Jun, once dubbed China's "Golden Whistle" who officiated at 2002 World Cup, was accused of taking 710,000 yuan in bribes from clubs to favor one side or the other as a referee and to sway game results as a middleman between 1999 and 2003.
Two other referees, including Zhou Weixin and Wan Daxue, and several other club officials, have been accused of bribery and fraud accordingly by the procuratorate in the two cities, and all of them will face criminal charges according to law.
The two courts in Tieling and Dandong did not announce the verdicts immediately.
China's professional soccer leagues have been plagued with allegations of gambling, match fixing and corrupt referees for years. In order to clean up the game, a nationwide crackdown on gambling and match fixing was launched in March 2009, as a high-profile committee was set up by 12 ministry-level bodies.
Since then, a batch of officials, referees and players have been detained for their involvement in corruption and match fixing.？
