By Mark Baber
January 17 – Wei Di, the head of the Chinese Football Association (CFA) has been sacked three years after being appointed to the role.
The news has been confirmed by Xinhua, who talked to an unnamed senior official at the Chinese State Ministry of Sports. The reasons given for his removal were his age (Wei Di is 57) and poor performance.
Wei Di was reportedly informed in a phone call and is expected to be moved to another department. The new head of the Chinese FA will be Zhang Jian, the director-general of Policy and Regulation Department of Sport Ministry. No information has been provided on the formal hand-over date.
Under Wei Di’s regime the Chinese men’s national team failed to qualify for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2012 Olympic Games and went out in the first round of the Asian Cup. The Chinese women’s squad did not participate the 2011 World Cup finals, for the first time, and also failed to qualify for the London Olympics. The Under-20 team lost three matches in a row in the AFC Under-19 Championship.
Former CFA chiefs Nan Yong and Xie Yalong received 10 and a half year jail sentences last year for accepting bribes. Xie’s lawyers claim his confession was extracted with the use of electric shocks and other torture.
The new Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, is a known football fan and the campaign to clean up football, which has seen more than 50 officials, players and referees imprisoned, including four former national team players and the manager, is believed to have been launched at his initiative.
Zhang Jian will oversee the national team’s rebuilding under coach Jose Camacho with China facing Japan, Australia, and South Korea in July’s East Asian Cup.
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