Soccer scourge

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Soccer scourge

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-06 08:36

Men's soccer in China has long been considered as something that we need but don't want because of its terrible performance in international competitions. The exposure on the involvement of some from soccer clubs - including players - in the manipulation of matches for booty from soccer gambling points to even more serious problems.

It was reported that more than 100 people within the circle had been investigated for their involvement in soccer gambling. A soccer betting case cracked indicates that the insiders detained did not just bet on a particular match. They also manipulated the matches by fixing the result in advance in order to make money from gambling.

Long before the exposure of this scandal, men's soccer has been bombarded by criticism and even accusations about the decadent lifestyle of players. The most notorious was that some players in the national team reportedly visited prostitutes the night before important matches and some players were bribed to cheat in matches.

There is a consensus that lack of due dedication to the sport on the part of quite a number of players has contributed tremendously to the underdevelopment of this particular sport. What the clampdown on inside manipulation of matches for the sake of gambling has come as a bombshell. Chinese soccer premier league, rather than helping elevate the level of the sport, has turned out to be a money vending machine manipulated by some insiders for dirty money.

Little wonder then that the performance of Chinese national team is so poor in international matches that it can lose to a team from a foreign country, whose population is not as large as that of a medium-sized Chinese city. Why should they care about such matches as long as they can get good money from under-the-table gambling games?

Obviously the inside manipulation of matches constitutes not just an insult to soccer fans, whose enthusiastic support has made it possible for the premier league to exist. It undermines the healthy development of soccer by draining professional dedication and ethics from players, coaches, club managers and officials in charge of the sport.

With more insiders being investigated and exposure of the fixed models for manipulating matches, it seems what these bad apples have done is quite similar to what the organized crime gangs are up to. They bribe coaches and key players to fix the result of a match in advance and they have connections with soccer gambling rings.

Once an insider joked that an outsider could hardly image how dirty the soccer circle was. Now we know it is really dirty, dirtier than we can imagine.

We support and appreciate the determination of the central government and the public security department to crack down on soccer insider gambling.

We hope that they show no mercy to anyone involved, no matter how big the person is. We hope that the crackdown will eradicate the rot in Chinese soccer and re-establish professional dedication and ethics among players.

Therein lies the hope of Chinese soccer.

(China Daily 11/06/2009 page8)