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Detained Chinese Football Coach Says Fixing Is ‘Normal’
China | December 13, 2009

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Beijing. Match-fixing in Chinese football is “normal” but the poor standard of play makes it difficult to detect, according to a coach arrested in a nationwide probe.

Qingdao manager Liu Hongwei is charged with taking bribes to throw a match against the Chengdu Blades in 2007, which helped the Sichuan club win promotion to the country’s top flight.

Liu, whose arrest with Chengdu president Xu Hongtao and deputy You Kewei was reported in state media on Friday, said it might not have been obvious to the untrained eye that the match was fixed.

“The professionals might be able to see the flaws,” Liu told state-run CCTV. “But the professionals would have already known about many of these things in Chinese football. They are normal.”

The Chengdu officials are alleged to have given Liu bribes of 500,000 yuan ($73,000) to throw the Jia A (second division) match on Sept. 22, 2007, in which Qingdao fielded a second-string team.

“The playing standard of Chinese football is so poor that, even without us defending, they could not score a goal [in the first half]. They were too anxious,” Liu said.

Liu said he made substitutions in the second half to weaken his team even further and Chengdu finally ran out 2-0 winners.

“Match-fixing is not obvious,” he said. “We sent on young substitutes, who were truly incapable. Even then it did not look inconsistent [with normal standards].”

Liu said his players were in no position to object to the fix.

“The players belonged to the club,” Liu said. “They had to follow our arrangement.”

The case is the second to be revealed by a police task force.

At least four officials were detained last month on suspicion of fixing matches and gambling, which is illegal in China, relating to another Jia A match in 2007 involving Guangzhou and Shanxi.

The crackdown follows a string of comments this year by top officials — including President Hu Jintao — that Chinese football needed to clean up its act.

China

Reuters