Xinhua: FIFA’s scandal should be a warning for Chinese football

‍‍FIFA’s scandal placed itself under the world’s attentions again. Although it seems that the scandal is not directly related with Chinese football, it warns the Chinese football industry about proper industry regulation, anti-graft, and proper amount of commercial operations.

Industry examination and regulations

Jin Shan, a member of Chinese Football Association Executive Committee, thinks that regulation is very important and law and audit system need to be improved. He said that FIFA had no outside regulations and was like an independent kingdom. “Absolute power equals to absolute corruptions. This applies to FIFA as well.” “Chinese Football Association receives larger regulations than FIFA, but still had corruption problems. We need to improve law and regulation systems.”

Sun Wen, another member of the Chinese Football Association Executive Committee said that FIFA had a very good structure and a complete set of regulations. “But system is one side of the coin. How to regulate is also very important.” She said that international organizations often regulate themselves, which was not the ideal situation. Football is a business with great profits, and thus requires strict and clear regulation measures. “Outside regulations should be strict. This is what Chinese football should learn from this incident.”

President of Ledman said that, all power need regulation and restrictions, especially for high-profit organizations like FIFA; Chinese football is at an important period of development, receiving wide attentions; therefore, we should avoid FIFA’s faults, and adopt strict measures against corruption. 

Is heavy commercial interest the cause? 

Some thinks that FIFA’s scandal is partly caused by over-commercialization. Jin Shan agrees. He said that, football was no longer a pure sport which should be a warning for everyone. In China, football is very often treated as a commercial signal, and a tool for advertisements. “We should lessen commercial elements in football. Being too commercialized would lead people to care only about profits, which would lead to corruptions.”

Other people think that Chinese football is not really commercialized. Gao Jianli,deputy general manager of Shenyang Zhongze FC, said that Chinese football has been trying to become more professional for 20 years and is still experimenting. In these 20 years, Chinese football has always been relying on Chinese government. 

The president of Ledman, Li Mantie, said that Chinese football should avoid bringing damages to sponsors like what FIFA did. 

Source: Xinhua