Tan Hai, head of the Chinese Football Association’s technical department, is among the latest figures in the sport to face investigation.
The General Administration of Sport, the national regulator, said on Saturday that Qi Jun, head of the Chinese Football Association’s strategic planning department, and Tan Hai, director of the CFA’s technical department, were suspected of “serious violations of discipline and law”, a euphemism for corruption.
According to the Hubei Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision, the investigations are being led by a joint task force from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the country’s top anti-corruption agency.Qi and Tan are the latest figures in Chinese sport to be caught up in a campaign that has snared nearly a dozen high-level football officials since November.
Authorities in China are investigating two senior football officials for corruption amid a widening inquiry into one of the country’s most popular sports.
Among the others to fall from grace are former men’s national football team coach and a former English Premier League player Li Tie, as well as Chen Xuyuan, the CFA’s president and deputy Communist Party chief.
He became a Fifa referee in 2004, going on to referee in the East Asian Football Championships in 2005 and 2008, as well as Fifa World Cup qualifiers in 2014. He has also been a lecturer at Beijing Sport University.
Qi was in charge of triathlons at the General Administration of Sport before being moved to the CFA in 2010 after Nan Yong, the CFA’s head, was taken away for a corruption investigation.
He oversaw pandemic controls for the men’s and women’s national teams during the coronavirus years and was in the running to become coach of the men’s squad in 2021, according to Guangzhou-based Soccer News. The men’s team has been considered an underperformer in recent years despite significant investment in the sport.
According to the latest Fifa rankings, the Chinese men’s team is 80th in the world, between Honduras and Guinea. The Chinese football industry has been targeted by a number of anti-corruption campaigns over the years.
In the aftermath of a football match-fixing scandal, the Ministry of Public Security launched an investigation between 2009 and 2013, which snared a number of high-level soccer officials, including Nan and his predecessor, Xie Yalong, both of whom were sentenced to 10½ years in jail.
