Senior Chinese football official sentenced to 17 years in jail for corruption

The former vice president of the Chinese Football Association (CFA), Wang Dengfeng, was sentenced to 17 years in jail for fund embezzlement and bribery as part of an anti-corruption drive against the country’s football authorities, official newspaper China Daily reported on Tuesday.

Wang must also pay a fine of 5 million yuan ($695,000) for using his positions in the CFA and the Ministry of Education – where he was director of the Department of Physical, Health and Artistic Education – to obtain favors. According to the court, Wang used his position in the ministry to embezzle public funds of more than 44.9 million yuan and the vice presidency of the CFA to help associates obtain contracts for projects and events. In exchange, he received property worth 9.66 million yuan. Wang, who had been facing an investigation since August 2022 and was arrested in February 2023, confessed to the crimes.

He returned the funds and properties that he had embezzled, earning him a lighter sentence, according to China Daily. In recent years, Chinese authorities have detained or initiated investigations against the chairman of the Chinese Super League, the deputy director of the General Administration of Sports, and even Li Tie, a former national football team coach who once played for the English club Everton. In October, the CFA appointed a new president, Song Kai, who promised an open and transparent investigation against officials involved in corruption. Chinese football has been engulfed in corruption for years, with former CFA chief Chen Xuyuan, who headed the organization between 2019 and 2023, facing a trial for accepting $11 million in bribes, among other charges. After coming to power in 2012, Chinese President Xi Jinping launched an anti-corruption drive in which several senior Chinese officials were convicted of accepting million-dollar bribes.