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A Chinese soccer referee has pleaded guilty of fixing a friendly for the British Premier league—Manchester United that won 6 to 0 in Macau back in 2007. At least 60 Chinese national soccer players, referees, coaches, and other Chinese officials appeared in court this week. They were prosecuted for match-fixing and gambling scandals.
A prominent Chinese soccer referee, Huang Junjie, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to fixing a Manchester United friendly.
Huang admitted he had accepted $250-thousand in bribes from six soccer clubs—relating to two international matches. One of them was between Manchester United and Shenzhen FC, in which Manchester United won 6 to 0 in Macau in 2007.
Another referee, Zhou Weixin, also faces corruption charges. He approached Huang to sway the results.
At least 60 Chinese national soccer players, referees, coaches and other Chinese officials appeared in court on corruption charges this week.
The trials involved senior officials of the Chinese Football Association—or CFA. Former CFA vice president Xie Yaning admitted to accepting bribes five years ago.
[Xie Yaning, Former VP, Chinese Football Association]:
"It was 2006...$32,000."
The former CFA director, Zhang Jianqiang, pleaded guilty to taking and offering bribes of up to $380-thousand.
[Zhang Jianqiang, Former Director, Chinese Football Association]:
"I was in charge of the referees. They wanted to get favored treatment from the referees."
Former CFA president Yang Yimin also faced corruption charges.
[Yang Yimin, Former President, Chinese Football Association]:
"Pan Qiang came to see me one evening and gave me 10,000 US dollars... then I asked the physical fitness test's person-in-charge if he could do them a favor without crossing the line too much."