Ed Wang Kai and His Parents

At The Buffalo Story Project, Charlotte Hsu profiles Ed Wang Kai (王凯), 23-year-old descent of Chinese Olympians now playing for the Buffalo Bills.

The air inside the Buffalo Bills’ autograph tent was hot and sticky, pregnant with the humidity of late July. This was not where rookie left tackle Ed Wang wanted to be. Nevertheless, he hunched his 320-pound frame over a table and went to work, initialing a football, a sports glove, and a few other items.

He gripped a Sharpie in his hand, but his mind was elsewhere. When he lifted his head to survey the remaining fans, he seemed relieved to discover they were waiting for the other linemen attending the pre-season signing session, and not for him…

The story is on the cover of this week’s Artvoice. Thanks to ZB for the tip and best of luck with Ed and David’s recovery.

Photo: NFL China

It might be too early to call it “normal,” but since Chinese investors went after the NBA Cleveland Cavaliers basketball squad in 2009, the latest news that a Chinese investment group is now looking to purchase Liverpool F.C. doesn’t seem all that surprising. Except for the little issue over the fact that it is the China Investment Corporation, a state-owned company established in 2007 under the Ministry of Finance using 1.55 trillion RMB. The corporation is charged with managing part of the country’s foreign reserves, and is one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds.

Kenneth Huang, point man for the potential purchase of Liverpool F.C. by the China Investment Corporation. Image from Shanghaiist.

The British press seems flustered at the prospect of having the financing arm of the Chinese government owning a football club. The BBC’s Beijing corespondent Chris Hogg cautioned the move by the CIC in an August 5 podcast. The Guardian questioned the decision by the CIC, calling a potential Liverpool purchase “the odd one out in the CIC investment portfolio,” given the group has invested in firms such as Coca-Cola, Apple and Motorala, but has no experience in sports teams.

According to the Telegraph, the investment group would be led by Kenneth Huang and his QSL Sports Limited company, both of which have been linked to purchasing a 15 percent stake in the Cleveland Cavaliers, bringing Tsingtao beer to the Cavs’ sports arena, as well as helping bring Yao Ming to the Houston Rockets and deals with the New York Yankees baseball organization. Huang and associate Guang Yang, executive vice president of Franklin Templeton Investments and chief investment officer of the China Life/Franklin Templeton Fund, would be in charge of day-to-day operations should Liverpool be bought, and the other Chinese investors involved in the CIC deal would have a more “passive” role in the team.

In 2009, when China Sports Review looked at the Cleveland Cavs deal with a group of Chinese investors, CSR championed Huang and the apparent front runner of the group, Albert Hung, one of the wealthiest businessmen in Hong Kong, for potentially ushering in a new era of sports investments into American athletic teams. Since then, the only attention the Cavs have received is the circus that surrounded LeBron James’ departure from the team to join the Miami Heat, and recently Shaquille O’Neal’s move to the Boston Celtics.

Even the NBA’s own reports downplayed the purchasing stake in the Cavs, and instead focused on Huang’s goals of investing more into the China Basketball Association. The Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t even bother to make it news for the organization, as it is not listed anywhere on the team’s official Web site that a Chinese company has a stake in the franchise. Tsingtao Beer is probably kicking themselves in the pants for investing in a team that’s seen its star players jump ship, and is now a Chinese beer company with exclusive distribution rights to … just another sports team in the “middle of nowhere” Ohio.

This isn’t to knock Huang, who seems to pop up in the news every few months with a potential sports deal that elicits even more raised eyebrows than the previous, particularly because China has a very limited history of investing in foreign sports teams, but I think Huang is the wrong person to focus on when talking about the potential Liverpool purchase.

It’s also naive and unnerving to see the British media challenge the CIC based on the fact that it has no previous experience in the sports world. Pardon me, Guardian’s Tania Branigan, but what is wrong with a fund that made a nearly 12 percent return on its 2009 investments now branching out into sports?

Lou Jiwei, current head of the CIC, China's former Vice Minister of Finance, and one of the country's most seasoned financial operators. Image from Time Magazine.

Maybe it’s as simple as saying CIC has a lot of money to throw around, Liverpool is in debt, and for all intents and purposes the CIC will bail them out. Maybe it has something to do with getting a foothold on a market that is currently undergoing a number of infrastructure projects — code words for serious money moving around — in preparation for the 2012 London Olympic Games. Or, given we’re looking at Liverpool, maybe it has something to do with the massive planning project recently approved for Liverpool, the largest in the United Kingdom, that will see 1.7 million square meters of the region developed. The not-for-profit Web site Merseyrail Extensions is currently documenting the expansion taking place in Liverpool, and it has managed to pull together several interesting developments — another code word for serious money moving around — taking place in Liverpool.

Given all that, I don’t have anything to back these assertions, but Lou Jiwei, China’s former vice minister of finance who now runs the CIC, just doesn’t look like a man that interested in soccer balls. In this case, the purchase of a sports franchise seems like the first step in creating a pipeline for Chinese investors into the United Kingdom, and more importantly “western Europe.”

— Zachary Franklin

A Chinese investment group is trying to sign a deal for a 15 percent minority stake in the Cleveland Cavaliers. Photo from New York Times.

A Russian billionaire is being challenged by an American politician over previous company investments. Is this cause to also go after a Chinese investment group that is finalizing a deal to purchase the Cleveland Cavaliers?

Mikhail Prokhorov, left, is being challenged by a U.S. official over whether one of his companies was funding Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, right. Photo from the New York Post.

A New Jersey congressman is demanding an official inquiry into Mikhail Prokhorov, the Russian billionaire who is about purchase the New Jersey Nets, for his apparent business dealings in Zimbabwe. The move threatens to crumble the $200 million USD deal and whether the team will ultimately be moving to Brookyln.

According to the New York Post, the congressman is challenging Prokhorov on whether one of his companies violated a federal rule that forbade any United States or U.S.-based subsidiary company from doing business with current Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe.

I bring up the challenge to Prokhorov because an investment group from Asia is still finalizing a deal to purchase a 15 percent minority stake in the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported in 2009 that the deal is being led by Jianhua “Kenny” Huang, a Chinese businessman who has brokered deals with the New York Yankees and other U.S. sports teams in the past.

In December 2009, China Sports Review wrote an op-ed on the proposed deal to purchase a stake in the Cavaliers franchise, and asked why Albert Hung, another apparent front man connected with Huang to purchase the Cavs, and an individual with strong ties to the Communist Party, had not been subjected to any backlash by the American public in the wake of an influential CCP member investing in a U.S. sports franchise.

It would seem prudent in the wake of a U.S. government official calling out Prokhorov and his dealings in Zimbabwe that both the NBA and the Cleveland Cavaliers organization are absolutely certain there are no ghosts in the closet with the Asian investment group. Then again, maybe Prokhorov was a little too cavalier in the lead-up to finalizing the Nets deal. After all, what billionaire flashes an automatic rifle on CBS’ 60 Minutes interview and admits the reason he’s become so wealthy is by nefarious dealings in Russia?

Recent public spats over Chinese Renminbi currency appreciation have been cause enough for American politicians to cry foul when it comes to China. Huang, who has a history with American sports franchises might not be under the microscope, but there has yet to be a public disclosure of the other Asian partners involved in the deal. One can imagine NBA Commissioner David Stern is hoping his foreign investors’ pasts do not catch up with them when it comes to business in the National Basketball Association.

TREES that cost millions of yuan to plant to stop soil erosion and water run-off in a north China village have been uprooted for a golf course.

The sea buckthorn trees sheltered gales and stabilized the soil in Jiuchenggong Village in Erdos City of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Xinhua news agency reported today.

The 36-hole golf course, indoor coaching center and other support facilities are expected to use 5 million tons of water each year, mostly underground water, for its planned 467 hectares.

Villagers fear it will drain groundwater and lead to further soil loss.

China’s water authority launched an ecological improvement project in 1998 to plant 200 hectares of sea buckthorn to improve the soil and water supplies.

Villagers told Xinhua that the tree planting had worked, as water was now reappearing in formerly dried-up streams.

Development was banned by the local government in the village because of its ecological fragility.

But Erdos Yitong Yitong Coal Co Ltd launched the golf project in the ecological protection zone in 2005, calling it a “new agricultural project” because China bans golf course construction, the report said.

Yitong Coal has developed half of the golf project and expects to lay lawns next month ready for opening in August, according to a manager surnamed Qiao.

The zone’s water authority doesn’t have the power to stop the golf project, according to Chen Yonggui, office dean of Dongsheng District Water Protection Bureau.

Go here for more details about the story in Chinese.

The Potala Palace was closed for visitors on the Serfs Emancipation Day, but I was lucky enough to have played with them for a while.  :-)

In this candid record provided by one Youku Paike, Zhou’s mother was surrounded by media reporters, pushing for explanations on why her daughter only thought about parents but not THE country. (Youku Paike’s camera was fixed on Zhou’s parents, and only recorded surrounding reporters’ voices.)

The severely hurt mother was defending her daughter with all her power – by simply telling the truth. She said, “(When Zhou started training, all we as parents wanted was for her) to have a skill to find a job in the future, to support herself.” “I never dare to think of this day (when she became an Olympic gold medal winner)!

Pressed by one particular brainwashed female reporter, Zhou’s mother retorted back: “This really hurts us. How can they think this way?” She repeated her astonishment: “I really can’t understand why you think this way.” Simple, direct and powerful from a mother defending her beloved daughter.

The mother said she would never ever “gamble” her daughter for her own good. As disclosed, Zhou tries hard to help her parents, but the mother had no intention to use a single penny that her daughter earned – with tears and blood in my opinion. “Don’t you have a child yourselves? …It’s out of her love… I don’t want to use one single penny…” the mother cried bitterly.

Could someone pass along a Marxism booklet to the journalist and tell her to have some respect?

I’ve been talking with friends about Yu’s words since, I don’t know, he said them. In the midst of the sacred and low-carbon two sessions that made public transport in Beijing even crowder, you really can’t avoid the news, can you?

A little recap:

Zhou won gold in the 1,500-meter race and the 3,000-meter relay in her Olympic debut. After her 1,500 win Feb. 20, a breathless Zhou told China Central Television: “It’s my dream. After winning the gold I might change a lot, become more confident and help my parents have a better life.”

She thanked her coach and teammates, but never mentioned the state-run sports system in which she had trained as an athlete for much of her life.

It’s right to respect and thank your parents but you also have to have the country in your heart. The country must come first. Don’t just talk about your parents,” said Yu Zaiqing, deputy director of China’s General Administration of Sport, in widely reported comments earlier this week.

Hate to buck the trend, but if put in context, I actually think Yu Zaiqing’s country-first-parents-later talk is understandable.

Born in 1951, Yu was educated and has been working in the Communist China that favors collectivism to an extreme. And these days, sports happen to be one of a few sectors left where collectivist education and ideology still permeates in the People’s Republic.

I was born in the early 80s. Since the elementary school, the picture of an athlete shedding tears while the Five-stars-red Flag raising slowly with China’s national anthem playing has been imprinted in my brain. It’s a cult-like situation for Chinese athletes, patriotic or nationalistic as you may describe. I would expect them to thank the country anyway, and I think most of my fellow compatriots can relate to this feeling.

I mean, it could be like “I’d like to thank my parents, my leaders in the sports bureau and the country’s great sports system. But that sounds a bit unnatural to be honest. It’s not in the tradition. The traditional sequence would be “the country, the leaders and your parents.”

OK, I know what you’re thinking. Fuck the sequence and all that. So in most cases these days in my observation, athletes would rather thank their supporters, which I presume is done in part to avoid the crap. I didn’t really pay attention, and wonder what Wang Bingyu said after they crowned World Women’s Curling Championship last year, considering they didn’t really have any supporters back then.

Unlike Yu Zaiqing, Zhou Yang was born in 1991, and pretty much avoided the collective China and hasn’t trained in the taxpayer-funded sports system for very long. True, we still have “red songs” and “red SMS messages” until today, but most young Chinese couldn’t care less about them or even enjoy making fun of them.

I think Yu, being a sports official and a party boss, to some extent believes in what he said, and the idea of thanking the country first is not entirely posturing to him. There’s something that people like Yu wants to save and protect.

Take Luo Chaoyi, director of Gymnastics Administrative Center under China’s National Sports Bureau. In a recent interview with China Youth Daily, Luo said the age of Dong Fangxiao is her personal matter and the fact that Dong’s age had been shifted 3 years younger after her retirement was Dong and her family’s own practice.

According to the International Gymnastics Federation’s findings, Dong registered a birth date of January 20, 1983 at Sydney but when accredited to act as “secretary” at vault at the 2008 Beijing Games, had declared her birth date as January 23, 1986.

To put it simple, Luo told a blatant lie. But he did so trying not to jeopardize the National Gymnastic Association and, probably only to the likes of him, the country’s image.

What Yu and Luo said can tell you how unusual and unsophisticated these Chinese sports officials are, to say the least. And in the case of Yu, how stupid the Political Consultative Conference can be.

The golden rule for them: say nothing. But we can expect more of these in the future.

Links and Sources:

• Danwei: Lesson learned, Zhou Yang thanks the country first
• Youku Buzz: Don’t Politicalize the Unnecessary Controversy
• AP: Skater’s gaffe highlights politics of China sports
• South China Morning Post: Skater’s gold tarnished by petty posturing (subscription req’ed)
• WSJ China Real Time: Thanks to Mom or the Motherland?

“Chinese gymnastics team have won 17 golds in the previous Olympic Games, to which gymnasts from Hubei province contributed seven of them. Given the current situation in Hubei, how can I not be worried?” said Huang.

The head coach also noted that Chinese gymnastics has been suffering from “inner attrition” very badly in the last ten years. The new-found talent famine, according to Huang, is due to some structural problems and infightings [among teams at various levels].

“That China won 6 golds at the 2009 World Artistic Gymnastics Champs is only superficial, you all can’t see the crisis behind it!”

Huang said these words one week after the International Gymnastics Federation issued their decision to strip a gold medal won by team China at the Sydney Games after finding out there’s a “presumed violation of the age limit for participation” in the case of Dong Fangxiao, a female gymnast.

It suggests that the National Gymnastics Association may has decided to tackle the age problem in the country to prepare for competitions years after. For a country that has been supposedly getting ahead by staging underage gymnasts since, let’s say 2000, it could cost them golds at least in London.

The thing in Chinese gymnastics is, local teams and coaches at various levels have been following the trend of recruiting underage players and they understand clear that once the paperwork is done, it’s almost impossible to tell how old exactly a young lady is. So whatever agenda is on Huang’s mind to get things right, it’s no easy task.

Source: Wuhan Morning Post (武汉晨报 in Chinese)

The first international youth soccer tournament in Beijing reveals details today.

The tournament, named The Great Wall Cup of Beijing, will be hosted by the Beijing Municipal Sports Administration, and undertaken by the Beijing Football Association, the Olympic Sports Center and China Sports Tour. In the first year of the event, the committee will invite teams from all over the world, both boys and girls, in the age categories 14, 16, and 18, as well as eight local teams. The event is considered to be the first ever international youth soccer tournament of this scale to be held in Beijing. International clubs and teams are welcome to register now.

The current status of Chinese soccer teams is unusual, according to Sports Minister Mr. Liu Peng, who states, “The shortage of reserve talent is the key reason for its low level.” The government has already realized the problem and started to focus on youth development. Promoting the international youth soccer tournament is a way to give local youngsters opportunities to communicate and practice with international teams so they can improve their technique and social skills.

“Chinese young players have little chance to play against foreign teams,” says Mr. Yang Junsheng, the president of the Beijing Football Association, “That is the reason why we fully support this event. We hope this tournament can serve as a kind of festival for all young players who participate in it. We sincerely hope this event will also draw more public attention to youth soccer. The Great Wall Cup of Beijing is not only a platform for Chinese youngsters to learn and experience the most advanced soccer skills, but also a window to show Beijing and China to the young generation of the world. We sincerely hope that through the Great Wall Cup, not only can Chinese players learn from other teams, but also first time visitors can have the opportunity to learn the spirit of the city, to experience the culture, the people and the fun.” By using the top sports facilities in Beijing and promoting a combination of culture, sports and travel, the tournament will satisfy participants and make them feel fulfilled by taking part in the one-week event.

Beijing, as a dynastic city, has become a preferred place to host popular international sports events, especially after the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. However, a youth soccer tournament has never been hosted there before. Inspired by the successes and great impact of the youth soccer tournaments in Europe, such as the Gothia Cup and Norway Cup, the Great Wall cup is trying to attract boys and girls from all over the world who love this amazing sport, offering them the opportunity to spend a week to enjoy the tournament and experience something unique. “Beijing has become an international city; it has already hosted several big-name events drawing public awareness, yet we do not have any youth sporting events. The Beijing Football Association sincerely hopes to take this opportunity to make the Great Wall Cull of Beijing a symbol of the Post-Olympics Beijing,” Mr. Yang explained.

One highlight of the one-week program of the Great Wall Cup of Beijing is called ChinaTouch. ChinaTouch is a workshop that provides foreign players the opportunity to learn and experience Chinese culture and art. The workshop will be held in the hotel lobby all week so every participant can take part. “Teams can learn basic Chinese, calligraphy, and practice kung fu with our kung fu master,” says Shine Liu, the managing director of China Sports Tour. “We arranged this workshop to allow international teams to experience something new and unique. It is easier to learn and make new friends in a happy atmosphere.”

Mr. Shine Liu also explained more details of the event: “Not only do we want to add fun and cultural elements to this tournament, but we are also trying to create more opportunities for talented players professionally, and that is why we have the ‘Meet the Future Star’ event. Professional coaches, scouts and sports agents from China and other Asian countries will be invited to observe the games, they will pick the players they like, and we will help them to arrange a face-to-face conversation so that they can better get to know each other, and to see if there is any possibility of future cooperation.” Besides these activities already mentioned, a grand opening ceremony, a closing banquet, and a Leaders’ Party will be held during the week.

Teams will also have a selection of sightseeing opportunities. They will get the chance to take a one-day trip to the famous Great Wall, visit the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square, the Drum and Bell Tower, the Bird’s Nest, the Water Cube, take a tour of old Beijing Hutongs and enjoy a lakeside dinner.

“Inviting international teams to join the Great Wall Cup will make this the biggest international youth soccer event in China ever,” states Mr. Shine Liu, “We feel really honored and excited to be the organization exclusively authorized to promote the tournament internationally.” Back in the late 90s, a youth tournament named “The Four Asia Tigers” was considered to be the most influential youth soccer event in China. Mr. Shine Liu commented, “Unfortunately, the Four Asia Tiger tournament only lasted around three years, and it was Asia-wide only.”

The 2010 Great Wall Cup of Beijing will be held from July 25th-31st at the Beijing Olympic Sports Center Football Park, just across the street from the Bird’s Nest. This tournament will become an annual event in the future and aim to be one of the biggest international sports events in Beijing along with the China Open and the Italian Super Cup.

The Great Wall Cup of Beijing is now looking to cooperate with all kinds of organizations and companies worldwide. Sponsorship packages are also available for companies who want to use this as a platform to introduce their brand and products to China and the world. “The tournament welcomes companies and organizations to join the Great Wall Cup of Beijing together with the teams. With the Beijing Football Association’s support, taking part in the event will definitely help companies to open a window to the Chinese market,” Mr. Shine Liu revealed, “As an international event that is supported and organized by the Beijing Municipal Sports Administration and the Beijing Football Association, media exposure will be inconceivable. Newspaper, portal website and TV media will come in great numbers to report on the tournament and the stories behind it. We believe we will give our sponsors and partners a great return. By participating in this exciting event, companies will not only increase their brand awareness in China, but also build a solid foundation with potential business partners in China. The organizing committee has been talking to Chinese portal websites, national TV stations and influential newspapers. They have all showed great interest in the Great Wall Cup and would like to broadcast, interview and report on it because this is the very first international youth soccer tournament in China, and all media know the importance and significant meaning of the event.” For more information and details about the tournament sponsorship packages, please contact Mr. Shine Liu at shine@chinasportstour.com.

Teams from America, Switzerland, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, Nigeria and Cameroon have already shown interest in coming for the 2010 Great Wall Cup of Beijing. The team registration fee will be waived for teams registering before Feb 28th, 2010. For more information, please visit http://www.thegreatwallcup.com, or email info@thegreatwallcup.com.

Dong competing in the Sydney Games

Five golds, two silvers and four bronzes – the performance of Chinese athletes at the Vancouver Games has been nothing but outstanding during the celebration of Chinese New Year. But back home, sports officials in Beijing are fumbling, as a bronze medal the Chinese gymnastic team won at the 2000 Sydney Olympics could be stripped soon.

As gymnastics officials may have helped Chinese athletes falsify birth documentations just like the football and basketball teams have been doing in the country, it looks they forgot to remind the players that they should keep lying.

The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) posted their ruling last Saturday on its Web site. Excerpt below:

In the case of Dong Fangxiao, the Executive Committee constituted that there was a violation to the FIG Statutes and Regulations. Consequently, the results obtained by Dong Fangxiao at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games have been cancelled. The FIG Executive Committee decision was forwarded to the IOC Executive Board with the recommendation to withdraw the Bronze medal obtained by the Chinese Team including the results of Dong Fangxiao in Sydney. In addition, the FIG Executive Committee pronounced the cancellation of all results obtained by Dong Fangxiao at the 34th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships 1999 in Tianjin (CHN), of all results obtained at the FIG World Cup Series 1999 – 2000 and at the Artistic Gymnastics 2000 World Cup Final in Glasgow (GBR) The costs of the disciplinary procedure are awarded to the Chinese Gymnastics Association.

The Committee decided that in the case of Yang Yun the concrete and objective evidence available is insufficient to prove that the birth date indicated on the official documents was falsified. Ms. Yang Yun is awarded with a warning for the declaration she made during the interview with CCTV5. The only mention of age in this case was on a television interview. The costs of the disciplinary procedure are awarded to the Chinese Gymnastics Association.

Should the punishment be made by the International Olympic Committee, it can kind of prove that the Chinese gymnastic team lied to the world, also putting the results at the Beijing Games highly questionable. And now the Chinese Gymnastics Association claims the evidence held by the FIG is unconvincing.

“We believe that to date, there is no sufficient evidence to prove that there were problems with Dong Fangxiao’s age in 1999 and 2000, therefore we feel great regret toward the FIG’s punishment decision,” a staffer of the association said last Saturday and later put their statement on its Web site.

The whole thing left us with a comical situation that while there’s evidence suggests the players were under age when they competed in the Olympics, without reliable help from sports science, it seems these young ladies can never get caught by lying.

And the problem in China is, if the players do get caught here, like the CBA players we’ve mentioned earlier (also see here and here), they face little punishment according to China’s sports law.

Call me a pessimist, but unless the new licensing system implemented by the FIG is super cool, it looks very unlikely that the age fraud shall be gone from here soon. Let’s hope not to continue the talk after the London Games.

Update 1: In an interview with China Youth Daily, Luo Chaoyi, director of Gymnastics Administrative Center under the General Administration of Sport, the top governing body of Chinese sport, said the age of Dong Fangxiao is her personal matter and the fact that Dong’s age had been shifted 3 yrs younger after her retirement was Dong and her family’s own practice. (According to the FIG’s findings, Dong registered a birth date of January 20, 1983 at Sydney but when accredited to act as “secretary” at vault at the 2008 Beijing Games, had declared her birth date as January 23, 1986.)

Links and Sources:

• The FIG: Sanctions pronounced!
• msnbc: IOC: No proof China cheated in gymnastics
• AP: China expresses regret over gymnastics punishment
• Time: Can Science Tell a Gymnast’s Age?
• China Youth Daily via NetEase: Dong Fangxiao’s age fraud a personal practice (in Chinese)

Photo: NetEase

The China Football Association handed out another round of rulings this week, demoting Guangzhou Pharmaceutical and Chengdu Sheffield United from the China Super League after evidence showed the teams had bribed opponents during the 2006 and 2007 seasons. Additionally, Qingdao Hailifeng was disqualified after police said the team’s chairman, Du Yunqi gambled during the end of a game, attempting to manipulate the score so Du could win more money. Both Du and the Hailifeng team captain were arrested. Global Times ran an article earlier this week outlining the new rulings.

The investigations into corruption within the China Football Association have been going on for several months, and include hundreds of players, officials, owners and referees, amounting to one of the largest investigations in recent Chinese sports history. What has not been addressed throughout the fiasco is the football beat reporters’ role in the scandals brought to light.

In a January 2010 China Sports Review article, it was reported Nan Yong, vice president of the China Football Association and Yang Yimin, a senior official in both the China Football Association and the Asian Football Confederation, along with Zhang Jianqiang, China Football Asociation’s head of referees, were detained by the police for interrogation. Newspapers that reported on Nan Yong and Yang Yimin initially were able to pull up instances of corruption, gambling and match-fixing over the span of a decade. The Guangzhou, Chengdu and Qingdao teams just exposed for bribery and match-fixing relate to games played as far back as four years ago.

I was recently asked whether the illicit behavior taking place in the China Football League was a failure of Chinese newspapers to act as a watchdog for the sport. I responded by asking that given the enormity of the investigations, their scope and the more than 10-year time frame we’re looking at, the question should really be which news organizations were NOT involved in some way with the corruption? This investigation is so sweeping and comprehensive it would not be surprising to find out most journalists were privy to information that would have gotten league officials and team owners in trouble. And if that were the case, it would mean journalists had an incentive going for them to not report the problems within the league.

I am not naming names. I am not implicating anyone or organization with this article. In fact, I have no actual proof that journalists are guilty of anything. For all I know, they very well could have had no knowledge of the corruption, gambling and match fixing. But in this instance, where the top officials have been detained, where teams are being handed severe penalties, where the whole league is being looked at from top to bottom, I have to imagine reporters, photographers and editors around China knew at least some of the information way before the scandal broke. And by “way before” I mean years before.

So why was the corruption not exposed earlier? Did reporters really have no knowledge? Or were they told not to report the truth? Were they bribed as well? Were they handed shut up money just like the reporters that kept quiet after the Hebei mining disaster? Was it to their advantage not to say anything in order to keep reporting on football? And were the newsroom editors just as oblivious?

Should the China Football Association decide to impose more penalties and fines during the investigation — and we’re far from the end — it will not be complete unless the league sits down with media organizations and talks with those that covered the sport.

— Zachary Franklin