Handcuffs Photo: CFP

 
Former president of the Chinese Football Association (CFA) Chen Xuyuan has been prosecuted for accepting bribes by the People’s Procuratorate of Huangshi in Central China’s Hubei Province.

Chen, who also previously served as deputy director of the Shanghai Port Authority and Party secretary and chairman of Shanghai International Port Co, was elected president of the CFA in August 2019 and deputy Party secretary of the CFA in December of the same year.

According to the charges released by the procuratorate, Chen allegedly took advantage of his positions and power to seek illegal benefits for others and illegally accepted a huge amount of property. He shall be held criminally responsible for accepting bribes in accordance with the law, said the procuratorate.

Chen was put under investigation on suspicion of serious violations of law and discipline in February by the Hubei Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection.

The prosecution is the latest development in China's anti-corruption campaign in soccer that also saw a probe into the former head coach of the Chinese men's national team Li Tie. 

Since the anti-corruption campaign in soccer started in November 2022, more than 10 senior soccer-related officials have been detained or investigated over legal and disciplinary violations, including Du Zhaocai, a deputy minister of the General Administration of Sport, and Yu Hongchen, former vice president of the CFA.

Chen, who was the first CFA president elected from a non-sports background, once said that "disciplinary violations within Chinese soccer have reached a point where they must be rectified and wiped out." 

Gao Zhidan, director of the General Administration of Sport, said in March that Chinese sport authorities have been conducting a profound reflection on the problems that have emerged in soccer and other fields and have vowed "to cure the sickness with powerful medicine" in the high-profile anti-graft storm.