Two more former soccer officials sent to prison

Courts in Hubei province sentenced two former soccer officials to prison terms on Tuesday for crimes including accepting bribes.

Huang Song, a former head of the competition department of the Chinese Football Association, was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment and fined 600,000 yuan ($84,100) for accepting bribes.

The Songzi People's Court also ordered the confiscation of his illicit gains and the transfer of the assets to the State treasury.

Huang came under investigation in March last year, and his case was transferred to the procuratorial authorities for prosecution in September. He pleaded guilty at his public trial in March.

In another case, the Tongcheng County People's Court sentenced Gu Jianming, a former chairman of the Chengdu Football Association in Sichuan province and a former member of the Chinese Football Association executive committee, to imprisonment for corruption, accepting bribes and offering bribes. He also pleaded guilty to the charges.

The court sentenced Gu to three years and six months for corruption, with a fine of 200,000 yuan; two years and six months for accepting bribes, with a fine of 100,000 yuan; and two years and six months for offering bribes as an entity, with a fine of 100,000 yuan. In combining Gu's penalties, the court decided to impose a total sentence of six years and a fine of 400,000 yuan.

According to China's Criminal Law, if an entity offers bribes or kickbacks to a State functionary for illicit benefits, it shall be fined, and the people directly in charge of it and other people held directly responsible shall receive fixed-term imprisonment.

The court also ordered the confiscation of Gu's illicit gains.

On Monday, two other courts in Hubei sentenced two other former soccer officials — former Chinese Football Association vice-chairman Li Yuyi and former Wuhan Football Sport Management Center director Fu Xiang — to 11 years in prison each as part of an ongoing crackdown on corruption in the sport.