'Patriotic' referee bribed by local soccer bodies

Updated: 2011-12-23 11:00



DANDONG, Liaoning Province - A soccer referee who ironically won the name as "patriotic whistle" for officiating in favor of Chinese teams, had been bribed by local soccer bodies, said a northeastern Chinese court.

Wan Daxue, who usually refereed against visiting teams in international friendly games including a China-Japan game in 2007, admitted to the Intermediate People's Court of Dandong in Liaoning Province that he had been bribed by the soccer administrative center of Shanghai, Guangdong and Shandong.

Wan was accused of accepting a total of 940,000 yuan (150,000 US dollars) in bribes, mostly from the Chinese National Games.

In the matches against Chongqing and Guangdong, both officiated by Wan, Shanghai won 2-1 and 3-0 respectively en route to the 2009 National Games crown.

Wan then accepted 450,000 yuan from another referee Huang Junjie, who acted as a middleman for the Shanghai soccer administrative center which is affiliated to the Shanghai Sports Bureau.

Huang himself had admitted on Tuesday to taking bribes of more than 256,000 US dollars.

Hu Yanming, an assistant referee to Wan in the 2009 National Games, got 50,000 yuan from Wan.

Wan confessed to taking 100,000 yuan from the Guangdong soccer administrative center for his role in Guangdong's 1-0 victory over Beijing in a National Games match in 2009.

He also admitted to accepting 20,000 yuan from the Shandong soccer center for his contribution to Shandong's 3-1 National Games win over Sichuan.

Four Chinese top league clubs, namely, Shanghai Shenhua, Shaanxi Baorong, Chengdu Sheffield and Henan Jianye, had bribed Wan.

Wan made his name known after a hot-tempered China-Japan game in the 2007 four-nation soccer tournament in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang, in which he booked four Japanese players while turning a blind eye to fouls by host players. No money was involved in the game.

The trials into Chinese soccer corruption are going into fifth day on Friday when 12 soccer officials and players face court in Tieling and Dandong, both in Liaoning Province.