China, Beijing: Li Yuyi, the former vice president of China's Football Association, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for accepting bribes and gifts. This sentencing is part of an ongoing investigation involving around a dozen football officials in China.
A Chinese court delivered the verdict, convicting Li Yuyi of using his positions at the Chinese Football Association and the Chinese Football Association Super League Co., Ltd between 2004 and 2021 to accept bribes and gifts in exchange for favors. According to state news agency Xinhua, Li was also fined 1 million yuan ($139,579.03) after it was found he had received money and valuables totaling over $1.69 million.
Li's case is the latest in a series of corruption investigations targeting high-level soccer officials in China since late 2022. Corruption has long plagued Chinese football, and the national team’s ongoing poor performance, even as football’s popularity grows, has brought more attention to these issues. Many fans attribute the struggles of Chinese football to the corruption within its domestic game.
Before Li, two former heads of the same soccer association were imprisoned in 2012 for taking bribes, receiving sentences of 10 and a half years. Earlier this year, a former chief of China’s soccer association was convicted in one of the country’s largest corruption scandals, having accepted bribes exceeding $10 million, and was sentenced to life in prison.
The crackdown on corruption has been a hallmark of Xi Jinping's leadership. Since assuming power in 2013, Xi has made anti-corruption efforts a central focus of the Communist Party’s agenda, vowing "zero tolerance" for corrupt practices. Thousands of officials, including prominent figures, have been penalized under Xi's anti-corruption campaign.
Last year, Defense Minister Li Shangfu was abruptly dismissed two months after disappearing from the public eye, reportedly due to a corruption investigation. While Xi’s anti-corruption drive has been praised by some, others have expressed concern that it may also serve to consolidate his political power.
