Wang and Huang were cooperating with investigators, according to the single-sentence announcements, but no details about the charges against them were provided. If state secrets are suspected to be involved, Chinese prosecutors have broad powers to hold suspects for lengthy interrogations.
The announcements come less than a month after Chen Xuyuan, the head of China’s national football body, was arrested on corruption charges. Chen was the head of the Chinese Football Association and vice chair of its party committee, highlighting the government’s heavy hand in attempting to direct the game’s success.
Xi Jinping, China’s increasingly autocratic president and Communist Party leader, announced a plan to make China a football superpower, but funding and enthusiasm appear to be dwindling. Xi has also made fighting corruption a signature policy, bringing down political rivals in the process and embedding strict policies governing free speech and civil society organisations that are not under party control.
Sports are subject to state control, and the national team has seen a revolving door of foreign and domestic managers fired for failing to produce results. Former Everton and Sheffield United midfielder Li Tie, one of China’s most decorated past football leaders, has been jailed as part of a graft investigation.
Despite its Olympic success in sports such as table tennis and shooting, China has only qualified for one World Cup, and that was more than two decades ago. The men’s national team is currently ranked 80th by FIFA, trailing only Uzbekistan, Georgia, and Gabon.
China’s top division clubs used to pay high wages to attract foreign talent, but the league has nearly collapsed as a result of the now-abandoned zero-COVID policy and persistent economic malaise.
Top sponsors have gone bankrupt, and efforts to combat match-fixing and other forms of cheating have gotten little attention recently.
