The Chinese Football Association, the middle-level main position has not yet been fully settled

Reporter Lu Mi reports In late August, the management division of the leadership team of the Chinese Football Association changed again, except for Xu Jiren, vice chairman of the Football Association, who confirmed that he was in charge of the national team from this month, other team members have local adjustments in charge of the department. In April this year, after the Chinese Football Association announced the adjustment of middle-level cadres and the restructuring of departments, many of the original middle-level cadres have been transferred out of the Chinese Football Association.

In view of the fact that the vacancies in many departments of the Football Association have not yet been filled, in the context of the continuous announcement of the anti-corruption case in Chinese football, the Football Association may also adjust the "sick" personnel who have taken the initiative to return the stolen goods or take the initiative to confess, it can be said that the personnel adjustment of the Chinese Football Association is far from being fully achieved. Under the tone of continuously deepening the anti-corruption campaign, the appointment of middle-level cadres will also be more cautious in the future.

On October 16 last year, the 12th Congress of the Chinese Football Association was held in Beijing, and then the division of labor of the new team members was also clear. Song Kai, chairman of the Chinese Football Association, is in charge of the national team, the technical management department and the Ford Bao Company; Vice Chairman Yang Xu is in charge of competitions, professional leagues (Chinese Football Federation) and other departments; Vice Chairman Sun Wen is in charge of women's football and other departments; Vice Chairman Xu Jiren is in charge of referees, member associations, social football, futsal beach soccer, media, Xianghe base and other departments; Yuan Yongqing, vice chairman and secretary general, is in charge of the Youth Department, Party Office, Administration, Personnel, Finance and other departments. The latest adjustment, in addition to Xu Jiren's decision to take over the Ministry of State Management, the Youth Department, which was originally in charge of Yuan Yongqing, was adjusted to Yang Xu to be in charge; The social football that Xu Jiren was in charge of was adjusted to Yuan Yongqing. After the adjustment, Song Kai, chairman of the Chinese Football Association, will no longer be in charge of specific departments and will focus on overall work.

In addition to the division of labor, in April this year, the Chinese Football Association announced the list of middle-level cadres, and 8 of the 14 departments after the streamlining have been determined, and there are 6 departments that only have deputy positions and no main positions. Since this adjustment, the middle level of the new department has not been in place, but some of the original staff of the Football Association have left.

At the beginning of June, three former middle-level cadres of the Chinese Football Association were transferred from the Football Association, namely Guo Bingyan, the former leader of the Chinese national men's football team and the deputy director of the State Management Department of the Chinese Football Association, who was transferred to the China Gateball Association; He Xi, former deputy secretary general of the Chinese Football Association, was transferred to the Chinese Triathlon Association; Li Lipeng, who served as the deputy director of the competition department of the Chinese Football Association, was transferred to the Modern Pentathlon Association. These three people did not appear in the list of middle-level cadres and deputies announced in April.

On June 28, Shi Qiang, the former head of the preparatory group of the Chinese Football Federation, was officially transferred from the Chinese Football Association, and then nearly ten staff members of the preparatory team of the Chinese Football Federation and the Chinese Super League resigned due to the expiration of the contract and other reasons. The most recent departure from the Chinese Football Association is Qiao Daihu, who has been in charge of youth training and served as deputy minister of women's department in April. And this week, Xu Chi, director of the Xianghe base, confirmed that he was dismissed, and the reason for the dismissal was retirement.

The series of anti-corruption cases in football that began in 2022 has so far reached the final stage, and the main people involved in the case have been sentenced one after another. Recently, within three days, courts in Hubei Province have pronounced sentences in five cases: Li Yuyi (former vice chairman of the Chinese Football Association) was sentenced to 11 years in prison and fined one million yuan; Ma Chengquan (former director of the Executive Board of the Professional League Council of the Chinese Football Association and former chairman of the Chinese Super League Co., Ltd.) was sentenced to 11 years and 3 months in prison and fined 800,000 yuan; Huang Song (former head of the competition department of the Chinese Football Association) was sentenced to 7 years in prison and fined 600,000 yuan; Fu Xiang (former director of the Wuhan Football Sports Management Center, former executive vice president and secretary general of the Wuhan Football Association) was sentenced to 11 years in prison and fined 1.4 million yuan; Gu Jianming (former chairman and secretary general of the Chengdu Football Association and former member of the Executive Committee of the Chinese Football Association) was sentenced to six years in prison and fined 400,000 yuan. For all of the above, the court will recover their illegal gains in accordance with the law and hand them over to the state treasury.

So far, 10 people have been sentenced in a series of anti-corruption cases in Chinese football, after Chen Xuyuan (former chairman of the Chinese Football Association) was sentenced to life imprisonment for accepting bribes, deprived of political rights for life, and confiscated all personal property; Chen Yongliang (former executive deputy secretary general of the Chinese Football Association and former director of the national team management department) was sentenced to 14 years in prison and fined 2.2 million yuan for the crimes of accepting bribes and offering bribes; Dong Zheng (former general manager of the Chinese Super League Co., Ltd.) was sentenced to 8 years in prison and fined 2 million yuan for accepting bribes; Yu Hongchen (former vice chairman of the Chinese Football Association and former chairman of the Chinese Athletics Association) was sentenced to 13 years in prison and fined 2 million yuan for accepting bribes; Liu Lei (former deputy director of the Wuhan National Fitness Center and former director of the Competition Department of the Wuhan Football Management Center) was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison and fined 300,000 yuan for the crimes of accepting bribes and offering bribes.

At present, Du Zhaocai, former deputy director of the General Administration of Sports of the People's Republic of China, Wang Xiaoping, former director of the Disciplinary Committee of the Chinese Football Association, Liu Yi, former secretary general of the Chinese Football Association, Qi Jun, former director of the Strategic Planning Department of the Chinese Football Association, Tan Hai, former director of the Technical Department of the Chinese Football Association, and Li Tie, the former head coach of the Chinese men's national football team, have not yet pronounced a verdict.

Even if all the verdicts of the series of anti-corruption cases in Chinese football are completed, it does not mean that the anti-corruption of Chinese football has come to an end. On July 8, the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the State Supervision Commission issued the "Circular of the Party Group of the General Administration of Sports of the Communist Party of China on the Progress of the First Round of Inspection and Rectification of the 20th Central Committee", the "Circular" said that the General Administration of Sports of the People's Republic of China has carried out the education and rectification work in the field of football, especially the Chinese Football Association, punished corruption in the field of football, strengthened the party's overall leadership over football work, purified the political ecology of the football field, and promoted the reform and development of football, and achieved phased results. In the football industry, we have deployed and carried out a special action of "promoting reform and governance with cases, rectifying the work style, and purifying the football ecology", and deployed the Chinese Football Association to hold a warning education conference every year, so as to effectively consolidate and deepen the achievements of education rectification and football anti-corruption in the football field.

Although there are many difficulties in the selection of vacant middle-level cadres due to the collapse of the Football Association before, there are still basic requirements for political excellence, courage to take responsibility, honesty and honesty are still the basic requirements, and the Football Association should try to avoid the previous problematic cadres to continue to "sick" work. The public expects Chinese football to have a good political ecology with a clean and upright atmosphere.