TIELING, Liaoning province - Chinese Internet users said on Saturday that the punishments meted out to convicted corrupt soccer officials and referees were too light.

Popular Internet portal Sina held an online vote with 82 percent of respondents saying the sentences were too lenient.

Only 4 percent said the punishments were too hard while 14 percent said the sentencing was fair.

The Tieling Intermediate People's Court in Northeast China's Liaoning province on Saturday morning jailed former Chinese soccer deputy chief Yang Yimin and ex-head of referees Zhang Jianqiang for bribery and fixing games.

Yang was sentenced to 10 1/2 years in prison after taking bribes totaling 1.25 million yuan ($200,000), while Zhang received a 12-year prison term for taking bribes worth 2.73 million yuan ($433,000) on 24 occasions.

Yang and Zhang are among 39 former soccer officials and club managers and employees who received punishments for their crimes on Saturday.

Yang, who had also supervised Chinese professional soccer as the CFA league director, had accepted bribes from about 20 domestic clubs and individuals on more than 40 occasions, including $10,000 from Jiangsu Shuntian club, which asked Yang to fix the fitness test results of players.

Yang, who was also fined 200,000 yuan ($31,700), told the court he would not appeal the sentence.

"The punishment isn't harsh," Yang's attorney, Wang Shujing, told Xinhua.

"Yang took bribes as a government official and the harshest punishment for taking bribes as a public servant could be the death penalty."

Zhang, who admitted to taking bribes from Chinese Super League clubs including Shandong Luneng and Shanghai Shenhua, had accepted money from Shenhua to help the club win the 2003 league.

Zhang, who had also been the CFA's women's soccer department director before his arrest, was fined 250,000 yuan ($40,000). He also did not intend to appeal.

The Tieling court also read out the trial verdicts and sentences of 19 other people in the morning, including Du Yunqi, former president of Chinese first division club Qingdao, who received a seven-year jail sentence.

The verdicts and punishments for the remaining 18 defendants were announced in the afternoon.

Beijing-based lawyer Hao Jinsong described the court rulings as "loud thunder, little rain".

"The punishments are too light to deter future crimes in Chinese soccer," said Hao.

Hao said Yang should feel lucky with a 10-1/2 year sentence and the 12-year term handed to Zhang was "unreasonably too light".

Chinese soccer has long been plagued by gambling, match-fixing scandals, crooked referees, corrupt administrators and violence on and off the pitch.

Two days ago, a court in Dandong, Liaoning province, sentenced nine people, including China's "Golden Whistle" Lu Jun, to up to seven years in jail for bribery and match fixing.

Lu, a 2000 Olympic and 2002 World Cup referee, was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in jail for taking 810,000 yuan ($128,000) to fix seven league matches.

Xinhua

(China Daily 02/19/2012 page7)