 Yu steps up catfight with Zhou
By Chen Xiangfeng (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-10-29 08:02 The former head coach of China's national diving team has now hired a lawyer to continue her quest to prosecute a rival coach for allegedly claiming athletes' bonuses that she claims are rightfully hers. Yu Fen, who trained China's diving queens and Olympic stars Fu Mingxia and Guo Jingjing, said on Monday that she has also submitted evidence to relevant authorities to support her claim that national diving team director Zhou Jihong misappropriated several million yuan in bonuses earned by divers that Yu developed and was therefore in line to benefit from. The outspoken Yu, who has been at odds with her replacement Zhou since she left the team on bitter terms in 1997, was outraged two days ago when the State General Administration of Sport (SGAS) said it found no trace of impropriety in Zhou's conduct. Now the cat-fight between the two women seems destined to escalate as Yu refuses to let the issue drop. "With all the evidence available and with the involvement of the judiciary, I don't think the diving team can escape the reaches of the law," Yu was quoted as saying by the Beijing Daily on Monday. Yu, now a coach at Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University, sent a letter to the nation's sports watchdog - the disciplinary inspection and supervisory department of SGAS - earlier this year claiming that she never received 90 percent of the bonuses she was owed for her divers' victories in international events. Yu complained that she had been overlooked by the national team and pointed the finger directly at Zhou. The letter was recently posted online anonymously, sparking fresh debate over the establishment of a fair and transparent bonus system within the national team. But an unnamed official from the SGAS department involved in the latest ruckus told Xinhua on Monday that the current system was sound and legal. The official said the department had re-examined the records of all 18 bonuses awarded to Yu but could not find any evidence verifying her accusations. He said the department informed Yu of these results in April - a claim strongly refuted. "The department has never once informed me of the inquiry results since I reported the illegal practices to them," she told Beijing Daily. "The disciplinary inspection department of the SGAS met me once in April and they gave me a signed list of bonus distributions and asked me to confirm them. "I told them there were five people who replaced me in terms of being eligible to receive the bonuses but that this was done without my consent. I do not even know some of them. "I asked the department to investigate the matter but it ignored my request and passed the buck to the Swimming Administrative Center (SAC)." After contacting one of the five people and learning that his signature on the list had been forged, Yu said she again appealed to the department for help. "The substitute told my lawyer that he never replaced me in receiving the bonuses and that his signature was forged," she said. Yu added that her lawyer has now collected enough evidence to pursue a successful course of legal action. Tug of war Yu and Zhou have been engaged in a verbal tug-of-war for years. Yu is one of China's most influential diving coaches, having trained four-time Olympic champion Fu and reigning world and Olympic champion Guo. But Yu left the national team after the 1996 Atlanta Games after clashing with Zhou. Since then, Yu has frequently criticized the national team's "out-of-date training system." The latest dispute occurred just prior to the Aug 8-24 Beijing Games as Yu applied to return to the national team but was denied. She responded by claiming she was heading overseas to coach a rival team but later denied she had said this and publicly bemoaned her "unfair" treatment at the hands of the national diving authorities. "I believe I am still one of the best diving coaches (in China). How come I cannot contribute to the national team for the preparations of the Beijing Olympic Games? I will not give up. I will keep doing my job in Tsinghua University and I believe one day I will be back on the national team," she told China Daily at the time. Despite her experience and prestige, Yu is also known as a maverick who openly criticizes China's state-supported sports system for not providing young divers with a proper education. She once threatened to take her university divers abroad because they were not allowed to take part in any major tournaments. She also planned to sue the national swimming administration center for not supporting her in trying to win back her divers, who moved to other teams in order to pursue their goals. Budding stars He Zi, Lin Yue, Zhou Luxin, Wang Xin and Yang Liguang were all forced to leave the Tsinghua team in order to pursue their international careers and, in the cases of Lin and Zhou, become eligible to compete at the Beijing Games. (China Daily 10/29/2008 page23) |
