Premier clubs blast at Chinese soccer body
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-10-15 10:59

Beijing Hyundai accused the Chinese Football Association (CFA) of injustice and mismanagement early Friday morning after the premier league club was deducted three points for its walkover in an Oct. 2 match marred by bad refereeing.

Yang Zuwu (R), general manager of Beijing Hyundai football club, answers questions at a press conferences Thursday after CFA decided to fine the club US$36,000 and strip the club of three points in the league. [Xinhua]

Dalian Shide, six-time first division champion and now languishing in third in the inaugural premier league, joined the Beijing club in attacking the Chinese soccer ruling body, accusing it of bad accounting, poor financial management and incompetence in youth program.

Beijing Hyundai, also known as Beijing Guo'an, pulled out of its away game against Shenyang after referee Zhou Weixin awarded a penalty kick to the host in an obvious misjudgment while the two sides tied at 1-1.

Beijing coach Yang Zuwu led his team out of the pitch in protest and the referee awarded a 3-0 win to Shenyang.

In a meeting Thursday night the CFA stuck to the 3-0 ruling but banned Zhou for eight matches for his refereeing mistakes. It also stripped Beijing of three points and fined the club 300,000 yuan ( 36,000 US dollars).

Beijing Hyundai called a press conference midnight, threatening to pull out of the next round on Saturday unless the CFA revoked its decision in two days.

Beijing club chairman Li Shilin said the CFA made its decision without consulting the Chinese Premier League Commission (CPLC) according to the league rules and regulations. He also demanded the CFA to return the administration rights of the premier league to the CPLC.

Li called for an emergency meeting of the CPLC standing committee to tackle problems in the premier league's structure, running system, accounting and competition environment.

Xu Ming, chairman of Dalian Shide, attended Beijing Hyundai's press conference in a show of support for the embattled club.

"It isn't Guo'an alone who has problems," he said. "Chinese soccer has accumulated so many problems over years.

"Chinese soccer has been troubled with betting on games by players and black whistles (corrupt referees). The CFA has never let us know their accounting records or how they run the league financially for 10 years.

"Chinese clubs should unite to deal with these problems."

Xu said he had called other premier clubs who claimed to fully support Guo'an's response to the CFA's penalty.

"Chinese soccer is hopeless if we can't seize upon this chance to solve these problems," Xu said.

The CFA has been in a more serious confidence crisis since the Chinese national team lost to Kuwait 1-0 on Wednesday night and lost control of their own destiny in the Asian World Cup qualifiers.

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