An anti-corruption campaign in sports is under way. Attention is now being focused on the court sessions that will be held this week in two small cities in Northeast China's Liaoning province. These should help clean up the country's professional soccer, which has become infamous for its corruption in recent years after a series of scandals.

Earlier this year, a crackdown on soccer match-fixing and gambling ended with the arrest of a number of soccer officials, coaches, referees and senior club executives; among them, Xie Yalong, Nan Yong and Yang Yimin, all of whom are former vice-chairmen of the Chinese Football Association (CFA).

Aside from the three former heads of the CFA, the investigation has netted two directors of the CFA referees' committee and a dozen referees. The CFA officials reportedly accepted bribes from players wanting to be named in the national team.

The wide-ranging catch caught in the crackdown shows how deep-rooted corruption was in the sport and how bribery and match-fixing has eroded the integrity of the CFA and the nation's soccer.

The highly flawed CFA administration has failed the nation, allowing the Chinese national soccer team to be the butt of jokes even among its own fans.

To rebuild its integrity and restore the nation's pride in its soccer team, the CFA should clean its house and come up with detailed plans on how to improve team management and player training. CFA officials have promised to invest in technology to monitor potential cheating in the professional league. But rules and punishments should also be established and enforced to ensure everyone involved in the country's soccer does not stray from the straight and narrow.

It will be impossible to bring the national team to the front ranks of world soccer unless the system behind it is free of corruption.

Obviously, much has gone wrong with soccer in this country, which was the pioneer for commercialized sport in China, with big companies sponsoring the leagues with generous sums of money.

Change will not happen overnight, it will take time to fix all the problems that have blighted the beautiful game in this country, but a thorough overhaul of the management system is essential if the sport is to have a healthy and bright future and an sound anti-corruption supervision mechanism should be put into place to guard against match fixing and gambling.

Meanwhile, the crackdown and the ongoing trials of soccer officials, coaches, referees and senior club executives should serve as a warning for the rest of the country's sports.

(China Daily 12/20/2011 page9)