Ex-China deputy football chief jailed for graft

BEIJING (AP) _ The former deputy head of China's football association was sentenced Saturday to 10{ years in prison as part of a crackdown on corruption and match-fixing, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Yang Yimin, convicted of taking 1.25 million yuan ($200,000) in bribes, was one of 39 people sentenced in a single session by the court in the northeastern city of Tieling, Xinhua said.

They included former head of the referees' committee, Zhang Jianqiang, who received a 12-year sentence for taking bribes totaling 2.73 million yuan ($433,000), and the former presidents or head coaches of five clubs in the Chinese league. The club officials received sentences up to eight years for bribery, gambling, and other offenses related to fixing matches.

Others were given sentences of up to 5{ years for crimes including giving and taking bribes, embezzlement, holding people against their will, and disrupting public services.

The club Qingdao Hailifeng was fined 2 million yuan ($318,000) for bribery, while Chengdu Blades _ a team owned by English League One side Sheffield United _ was fined 600,000 yuan ($9,525) on the same charge.

On Thursday, the same court sentenced referee Lu Jun, who officiated two games at the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan, to 5-{ years in jail for taking about nearly $130,000 to fix seven league matches.

Three other referees and five company and football association officials were fined or sentenced to up to seven years for match fixing.

China launched the current crackdown on match-fixing in 2009, hoping to root out gambling, bribery, and other forms of corruption that are blamed for sapping the competitiveness of Chinese football.

However, the league's problems date back at least until 2001, when allegations of match throwing and bribery of referees first emerged.

Meanwhile, China's performance in international competition slumped as football's popularity among fans lost ground in favor of basketball and young players turned away from the sport in droves.

China was knocked out of 2010 World Cup qualifying last year, failing to make the top 10 sides in Asia. In its only World Cup appearance, in 2002, China lost all three games while failing to score a single goal.