2001 Chinese football match-fixing scandal

The 2001 China Jia B League Match Fixing, also called the Five Jia B Rats incident (甲B五鼠事件) in China, was a series of match fixing involve five football teams (Chengdu Wuniu, Jiangsu Sainty, Changchun Yatai, Zhejiang Greentown and Sichuan Mianyang) in the final rounds of the 2001 Jia B League (present day China League One). It is widely recognized as an example of indisputable match fixing in the history of Chinese football.

Background

Before the final round of the Jia B league that year, Shanghai Zhongyuan Huili had already secured its promotion to the Jia A League. There were three teams fighting for the runner up position. Both Chengdu Wuniu and Changchun Yatai had 39 points, with Jiangsu Sainty was one point behind. The last available promotion place was expected to be decided by net goal difference.

League standings (after round 20)
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Shanghai Zhongyuan Huili 20 12 4 4 44 17 +27 40
2 Jiangsu Sainty 20 11 5 4 27 14 +13 38
3 Guangzhou Geely 20 10 7 3 26 12 +14 37
4 Changchun Yatai 20 10 6 4 31 15 +16 36
5 Chengdu Wuniu 20 10 6 4 33 21 +12 36
Source:

There was already public outrage at the result of previous round, where Chengdu Wuniu beat Sichuan Mianyang, a team in the same province, with a score of 11-2, a new Chinese record. Chengdu thus gained advantage on a goal difference of +21, overtaking Changchun's +18.[1] In another match, Shanghai Zhongyuan Huili beat competitor Guangzhou Geely 3-2 with an offside goal in the injury time of second half and won promotion to the first tier.[2] Players of Guangzhou Geely refused to return to the field after Shanghai Zhongyuan Huili scored the winning goal and their striker Bertin Tomou waved money towards the referee.[3] Under public pressure, the Chinese Football Association decided to kick off the final round at the same time in all stadiums, hoping teams would have less time to consider the need of match fixing based on the results of other teams.

Final round
League standings (before final round)
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Shanghai Zhongyuan Huili (P) 21 13 4 4 47 19 +28 43
2 Chengdu Wuniu 21 11 6 4 44 23 +21 39
3 Changchun Yatai 21 11 6 4 33 15 +18 39
4 Jiangsu Sainty 21 11 5 5 27 16 +11 38
5 Guangzhou Geely 21 10 7 4 28 15 +13 37
Source:
(P) Promoted.

While Chengdu Wuniu fell behind Jiangsu Shuntian with a 0–2 record, Changchun Yatai seemed to have a foot into the Jia A League with a comfortable 2-0 lead over Zhejiang Greentown, whose members mostly consisted of players from the B team of the Yanbian FC, which is in the same province of Changchun. After the second goal, the Changchun-Zhejiang match was interrupted by protests from Zhejiang players.

However, Chengdu went on a 4-goal shooting spree in the last 15 minutes, which not only bypassed Changchun in the standing but also held a +3 goal difference advantage over Changchun. After the Chengdu-Jiangsu game was decided, Changchun had only a few minutes to overcome the goal difference and it did just that with the help of an early game interruption, scoring 4 goals in the last 8 minutes.

Outcome

With the result having obviously been tampered with, the Chinese Football Association handed down its harshest punishment to date. The number of team promoted to Jia A was reduced from two to one. Coaches and players involved with the questionable matches were banned for a year. Despite no relegation having been planned, Sichuan Mianyang was demoted to division 2.[1]

With the exposure of the corruption, five Jia A teams, including the champions Dalian Wanda, as well as the Jia B team Guangzhou Geely had name changes when naming-sponsors ended sponsorship.[4] Li Shufu, chief of Geely Group, was quoted as saying, "We won't come back until Chinese soccer environment turns better."[5]

Unsatisfied with the punishment made by the CFA, Song Weiping, the president of Zhejiang Greetown, submitted a list of referees allegedly taking bribes to CFA, seeking to have names removed from future matches.[6] Gong Jianping, the referee of the Changchun-Zhejiang match, was arrested for bribery charges unrelated to the final round, and sentenced to 10 years in prison.[7]

References
  1. "Five Chinese Football Clubs Penalized by League", People’s Daily, October 18, 2001
  2. 中远提前冲A吉利队员退场抗议 五牛11球"大义灭亲"
  3. 甲B第21轮:中远靠争议球险胜吉利 提前晋级甲A
  4. Robin Jones, "Football in the People's Republic of China", in John Horne and Wolfram Manzenreiter (eds), Football Goes East: Business, Culture and the People's Game in East Asia, page 62
  5. "Sports-Yearender: Bittersweet Year for Chinese Soccer League", People's Daily
  6. "CHRONOLOGY-Chinese match-fixing cases since 1994", Reuters via ESPN
  7. "Soccer Referee Arrested on Charges of Taking Bribes", People's Daily
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