Recently, former Chinese Football Association (CFA) chairman Chen Xuyuan was formally charged by the disciplinary authorities for alleged abuse of power, illegal acceptance of large amounts of property and other offenses. The news has attracted widespread attention from the soccer community and society at large, with widespread concern about the punishment Chen Xuyuan may face. According to a legal expert's interpretation of Chen Xuyuan's case, he could face a harsh punishment of life imprisonment or even the death penalty.
Chen Xuyuan used to be the chairman of Shanghai Port Group. Because of his love for soccer, he strongly supported the establishment of a brand new Shanghai Port club (now renamed Shanghai Port) in Shanghai. By investing huge sums of money into the club, Shanghai Port became a new Chinese Super League tycoon team in just a few years.
The harbour team was already in a strong position to compete for the Chinese Super League title after bringing in big European names such as Hulk, Oscar and Arnautovic, and Chen Xuyuan soon realized his dream.In 2018, Shanghai, who had invested 12 billion yuan, finally won the first Chinese Super League title in the club's history. At this point, Shanghai stepped to the top of the domestic soccer world.
Nonetheless, a Chinese Super League title was not enough to satisfy Chen Xuyuan's ambitions, and he ran for and was successfully elected as the president of the Chinese Football Association (CFA). Although Chen Xuyuan did not have the right to spend a lot of money after he left the Hong Kong group, he was involved in a much larger scale of embezzlement in his position as chairman of the CFA and eventually fell from grace.
According to some soccer media sources, Chen Xuyuan's corruption amounted to 3 billion yuan during his tenure as chairman of the Football Association. This involved a 50 million yuan bribe from general manager Ding Yong to Chen Xuyuan in order for each club to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid adjustments, as well as Shenzhen in order to keep their spot on the Chinese Super League team.
A legal expert surnamed Chen said that for the actual circumstances of these cases and the amount of money involved, in general, only cases involving particularly serious crimes will be formally prosecuted by the disciplinary authorities to the intermediate court, which is sufficient to illustrate the seriousness of the cases involving Chen Xuyuan. In addition, experts have also indicated that Chen Xuyuan may face a life sentence or the death penalty. Therefore, Chen Xuyuan's current prospects are not optimistic indeed. He may face the harshest legal sanction in the history of CFA executives.
As the past president of the CFA, Chen Xuyuan should have devoted himself to promoting the development of soccer in China, instead of using his power for personal gains for himself and his family and protecting some of the clubs he supported. This violation of professional ethics is bound to be severely sanctioned by the law.
The indictment of Chen Xuyuan's case has attracted widespread attention from all walks of life, and fans will be closely watching the final verdict of Chen Xuyuan and the impact of this incident on Chinese soccer. Here, we also hope that the relevant authorities can maintain the fairness, justice and purity of Chinese soccer, help Chinese soccer get back on track as soon as possible, and reproduce the glory of entering the World Cup in 2002 by severely punishing Chen Xuyuan and other former executives of the Football Association for their illegal behavior.
