Dirty pitches and black whistles threaten football
- Source: Global Times
- [23:13 November 09 2009]
- Comments
It seems that every time when China vows to clean up its football pitches, it ends up achieving nothing. Corrupt practices have existed in the football industry for a long time and are hard to uproot. But they have to be torn up if China wants to realize its dream of revitalizing the sport.
Compared to football-developed countries such as Brazil, Argentina and even Japan, China lacks relevant legislation to control corruption in football, allowing those who grab huge personal interests to exploit the loopholes.
One feature of the current probe that shows China's determination and seriousness is the involvement of the country's Ministry of Public Security, which has set up a special task force to investigate the case.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) expressed its full support, saying those illegalities should be stamped out of the sport.
But when there's no law for the investigators to observe, what can they do? So the top priority now should be the establishment of rules, laws and regulations in the industry, allowing full judicial intervention.
China's lawmakers and executors can refer to the Marseille case. In 1993, a match-fixing scandal involving FC Olympique Marseille – the French champion and European champion that year – broke and shocked the European and world football.
Club President Bernard Tapie was found guilty in bribing Valenciennes FC, another French club, in throwing a league game to allow Marseille to win the league and leave them enough time to focus on the European final.
Tapie, a former cabinet minister, was later imprisoned, and the club, one of the most successful in the history of French football, was stripped of both titles and relegated to the second division.
The scandal had a long-term negative influence on Marseille, which has not won a trophy since then, but hugely changed French football in a positive way, with the country winning the World Cup in 1998 and the European Cup in 2000.
So, even though the current large scale probe may lead to some bitter results at first, there's a good chance that China's football industry can be radically reformed sooner or later. Judicial intervention is necessary, however, up to and including harsh punishments for offenders.
One possible step is to set up supervision committees in China's different football league divisions, as well as adopting better regulatory principles, such as the rotation of officials.
The current investigation is just the beginning of a long-term task, and more measures should be taken in the future.
The author is an editor with the Global Times
