New China chief targets clean-up in three years

BEIJING - The negative perceptions of Chinese soccer will begin to change in a year and the whole game will be put on the right path in three, said Wei Di, the man charged with dragging the sport out of its present morass.

Soccer in China has suffered years of misery and violence on the pitch and corruption off it, culminating in a series of match-fixing scandals over the past five months that have left it reeling.

Wei, who took over at the Chinese Football Association (CFA) in January when the previous chief, Nan Yong, was arrested, is confident he can restore the credibility of the game, if not immediately improve the quality of play.