Life imprisonment to former president of the Chinese federation – bribed with large amounts

Former football federation president Chen Suyan was sentenced to life imprisonment, as he confessed to large sums. Having admitted that he received large sums, as a bribe, the former president of the Chinese football federation, was sentenced to life imprisonment, as state media reports today (26.03 ), as part of the huge anti-corruption campaign conducted in China. Chen Suyan tried to obtain “unreasonable advantages for several football clubs and local football associations, thus seriously undermining fair competition and order in the football industry,” says the newspaper “People’s Daily”. Court in Hubei province sentenced the 67-year-old former head of the federation to “life imprisonment for bribery, life-long loss of civil rights and confiscation of all his personal property”, is explained in the relevant report. Accused of receiving more than 81 million yuan (p. 10.4m euros) from bribes, former president, Chen Suyan “accepted his guilt and expressed regret”, according to the news agency “Xinhua”. In a documentary broadcast last January by public television CCTV, Suyan confessed to having received bribes from players in the football world who wanted to have his favor. Suyan was the head of the Chinese football federation, the state body managing football and operating as a sports federation, between 2019 and 2023. As it turned out, he had received two million yuan to offer former national team coach Lee Ty, the position of head of the Chinese team, according to the prosecution. In the CCTV documentary, Suyan admitted that he was unable to enforce anti-corruption rules during his tenure, implying that this amounted to research into himself and the people to whom he was indebted: “The fans can accept the fact that the level of Chinese football is bad. But not to forgive corruption. I would like to apologize deeply to all Chinese fans.”