By Yin Hang

The dramatic arrest of two Chengdu football club officials accused of bribing a Qingdao football club official to fix a match that enabled their club to win promotion to the top flight has dominated sports pages.

Even President Hu Jintao was "very concerned" about Chinese football, Politburo member Liu Yandong said. The headline-friendly arrests were just the latest announcements from the Ministry of Public Security in its most recent football anti-betting campaign.

Despite a storm of positive publicity surrounding the police's eye-catching national arrests, the longsuffering football fans of the Chinese mainland mostly appeared unimpressed or unmoved.

"I believe most people are unfamiliar with those who were arrested – me too," Li Chengpeng, a football commentator and journalist, told the Global Times.

"They are low-grade league match players and cannot even be counted on as 'rain makers' in the league match.

"So it would be a gigantic error to suppose these 'little shrimps' are in any way responsible for the current situation of Chinese football."

Other football aficionados went further, arguing that old-fashioned monkey-scaring efforts tend to backfire both home and abroad by drawing attention to all the unaddressed systemic corruption that has ruined the beautiful game on the mainland.

"It may well inspire people who formerly had no idea about illegal betting or match-fixing to give it a shot," said Wang Xuehong, a professor at the China Center for Lottery Studies at Peking University.

"This campaign sends a hint to many people that now is a good time to organize and run underground football betting. Why? Because the cost of such a crime is too trivial, both for the organizers and participants."

The former assistant coach of Xiamen Lanshi You Kewei is arrested on suspicion of illegal gambling on November 13. Photo: CFP

'Black whistle'

Chinese football is famous for corrupt referees and their "black whistles", for bribe-taking football club bosses, for manipulated players, for flashy gamblers, but "it's distracting when the police try to combine all these facets together in one splashy action," Wang said.

To cure illegal betting would need in-depth, undercover research, he suggested. "Otherwise, it will end up being resolved by leaving everything unresolved exactly like what happened the last time in 2007," he said.

Such outspoken responses in part derive from the fact that this football campaign is by no means the first. There have been campaigns every few years since the Chinese football league was launched in 1995, of which the 2002 and 2007 are more memorable. None of them rooted out corruption, with disastrous and humiliating consequences for a global Olympic powerhouse.

The China national football team is ranked no.93 in the world, between Iceland and Moldova. Since their inaugural World Cup appearance in 2002, the team has slumped and failed to qualify for both the 2006 competition in Germany and next year's World Cup in South Africa. From a historic high of 37 in 1998, China has reached an all-time low of 108 in July 2009.

Chinese football operates a bit like an old backward State-owned enterprise, 27-year-old football fan Chen Simeng told the Global Times.

Li Zhenhong plays for Chengdu in 2005. Two years later as captain of Changsha Ginde, Li claims he was forced to confess to cheating in a match with Zhejiang Lvcheng. Photo: IC

Backward

"Our football management system itself is a mess. So I'm a Chinese football fan, but not a fan of Chinese football. What a shame," Chen said.

"Our soccer industry development lacks the necessary competitiveness, capital and player trades, all worsened by administrative interference. Its archaic mode of industry runs contrary to the best interests of football."

To really start solving the problem, Wang said, China could take three concrete steps.

"We need more specific regulations, which we don't have now. We need wholesale reform of the football industry including a more reasonable way of managing football players and their incomes," he said.

"And we need to know exactly who is responsible and answerable for each of these measures."

Meanwhile, more shrimps keep washing up on TV.

Fan Guangming, an official in charge of advertising at the Chinese Football Association (CFA) and Leng Bo, a former player at Qingdao, were under investigation and would be brought to justice soon, police recently announced.

In a live news program broadcast on the same day Nan Yong, vice president of the CFA, told China Central Television "the latest announcement, in my opinion, is just a beginning. I hope previous problems will be cleaned up by such activities."

"The current 'anti-match fixing actions' are a temporary solution. We need to effect a permanent cure as well if we want to solve the problem at root.

"Not only do we have to block but also to dredge. We need construction as much as destruction. We have to solve both the external and the internal problems."

Not one commentator or official has publicly suggested that Chengdu football club be punished or perhaps demoted for its ill-gotten promotion.

"I wouldn't expect too much out of this anti-fixing campaign," Ren Jie, the first Chinese to set up an anti-betting association, told the Global Times. "Those who are arrested are merely little fish and shrimps."

Ren himself lost millions betting and game fixing between 2002 and 2006. After a match in 2006 devoured his last remaining savings, he decided to rebuild his life from scratch and fight tirelessly against gambling.

"Illegal betting in China has forced the suicide of at least 48 gamblers to my knowledge. The CFA must take their share of responsibility," Ren said. "You know what makes a successful bookie in China: first, they have to be very fortunate; second, they got to have a wide network of contacts, at least be able to talk to referees, coaches and CFA officials.

"Third, you have got to have someone who is powerful enough to protect you. It's very hard to survive for these bookies if they are not taken care of."

Milestones

1954

The Chinese Football Association (CFA) founded, headquarters in Beijing.

1994

The CFA forms a professional league consisting of Jia A and Jia B – A and B divisions – each with 12 clubs.

Two clubs are to be promoted and two relegated from their respective league each year.

1995

Protesting the referee, the Jilin Yanbian football team stops playing in a Division A (Jia A) league match with the Sichuan football team. Sichuan wins 6-0 and Yanbian is criticized by the CFA.

1998

Sui Bo, a midfielder of Shaanxi Guoli football team, is accused of "playing extremely poorly".

Sui is suspected of being bribed. A high-profile investigation by CFA follows, yielding no result.

1999

Shenyang Haishi grabs an injury-time winner in their 2-1 victory over Chongqing. The Shenyang team is reportedly participating in illegal betting.

2001

The most-famous fixed game in Chinese football history. To win promotion to the top division, Chengdu Wuniu wins 11-2 in a match with Sichuan Mianyang.

2002

One of the referees at the center of the notorious 2001 match-fixing scandal, Gong Jianping, surrenders himself to the police. He is sentenced to 10 years for taking bribes.

2004

The former Jia A division is rebranded as the Chinese Super League. The B division is renamed A.

Gong Jianping dies in prison from leukemia.

Timeline of the 2009 crackdown

October 16

Liaoning police's special investigation team had traveled to southern China to investigate a case. They detain Zhong Guojian, former president of the Xiongying football club in Guangdong Province. This is the first official action of their latest "anti-gambling storm".

November 6

Fan Guangming, an advertising official at the China Football Association is required by Liaoning police to assist their investigation.

Midfielder Lv Dong, one of the top 10 players of the Liaoning Provincial football team, is taken to the police station.

November 7

More than 70 people including coaches, players and staff from Shenyang and Liaoning football teams, are questioned by police in Dalian during the process of investigating Wang Bai, former general manager of the Taiyuan-based Landrover Football Club of Shanxi Province.

November 8

It's reported that about 30 active football players are under police investigation, most of them from Liaoning Province.

November 9

The secret punishment for the 2003 "anti-black-whistle storm" is released by authorities: six football teams including Shandong Luneng, Shanghai Shenhua and Zhejiang Lvcheng were fined and their coaches warned.

November 10

Xie Feilian, former assistant coach of the Xiamen Lanshi football club, admits to the police that gambling was involved in 11 matches of 2005.

November 17

An un-named boss of the Qingdao-based Hailifeng football club is reported as having absconded abroad and one of its key players reportedly said that two-thirds of its players were involved in match-fixing.

November 18

Duan Xin, coach of the Shenyang Dongjin football team, is investigated, the first active coach involved in the police investigation.

Leng Feng, a key forward of the Shandong provincial football team, is arrested.

December 11

The Chinese Ministry of Public Security discloses for the second time details of the match-fixing scandal, alleging Xu Hongtao and You Kewei, heads of the Chengdu-based Blades Football Club were arrested. They are accused of having given Qingdao team manager Liu Hongwei 300,000 yuan ($43,950) in cash and a fake invoice for 200,000 yuan for one month's rental of Chengdu's training base. For the big match on September 22, 2007, Qingdao fielded a reserve team and Chengdu won 2-0.

December 13

Wang Shouye, general manager of the Qingdao-based Hailifeng football club, is taken by the police from Qingdao to Shenyang, capital city of Liaoning Province for investigation.

Source: Xinhua News Agency