The compulsory investigation of midfielder Son Jun-ho (31, Taishan, Shandong) of the Korean soccer team is growing as a problem at the central government level beyond the Chinese local government level.

CNN Japan Edition, a news channel, reported the local atmosphere on the 17th, citing an official from the Chinese Communist Party, saying, “Son Jun-ho is treated as the first case of investigation and detention of a foreign soccer player since the launch of the National Anti-Corruption Commission.”

The Chinese organization that can be expressed as the National Anti-Corruption Commission is the ‘National Supervisory Commission’, which was created as a constitutional body in 2018 by absorbing the National Corruption Prevention Bureau of the State Council and the General Administration of Corruption and Bribery of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate.

Chinese Super League Son Jun-ho. Photo = Shandong Taishan
CNN said, “China saw that corruption was rampant in the football world and started to eradicate it. In recent years, the CCP’s Discipline Committee has also launched a series of related investigations. The detention of Son Jun-ho is part of that.”

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed on the 16th that “Son Jun-ho is being detained by the Liaoning Provincial Public Security (police) due to an investigation into bribery allegations.” The Associated Press, one of the world’s three major news agencies, analyzed in an article from Beijing, saying, “President Xi Jinping is trying to eliminate corruption in the football world as huge investments do not produce results.”

Xi Jinping mentioned soccer more often than other sports during preparations for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing during his vice-presidential term. After he became the top leader, he fostered football as a policy카지노사이트, such as the Ministry of Education’s ‘Plan to produce Asia’s top players through the establishment/improvement/expansion of elementary school-middle school-high school-university leagues’ in 2014.

The AP said, “Based on the FIFA world rankings, China is ranked 81st. Chinese professional football is far from self-sustaining, relying heavily on expensive foreign players to attract spectators,” he said, pointing out Xi Jinping’s failure.

1st place in the 2022 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) league ranking was the last pride. However, Chinese professional football, which was embroiled in the bankruptcy crisis of the world’s largest real estate company ‘Hengda’, was confirmed to drop to 7th place in the 2023-24 Asian League rankings as the size decreased rapidly.

Son Jun-ho played a big role as a defensive/central midfielder in Shandong, a Chinese professional football team, with 4 points and 4 assists in 21 matches of the 2021 Super League (1st division) and an attack point of 0.40 per 90 minutes. If the year-end awards ceremony had not been canceled in the aftermath of Corona 19, MVP would have been a strong atmosphere.

As soon as 2022 came, Shandong re-contracted with Son Jun-ho until the 2025 season. A one-year extension option is also included. When English professional soccer teams such as Southampton and Fulham reviewed the recruitment, they responded quickly to stay.

Son Jun-ho shone as the K-League 1 Helper King (2017) and MVP (2020) even during his Korean professional football days. He is also one of the two Chinese Super League players named in the final list of 32 countries for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar.

Player officials said, ‘He has secured enough status by proving his skills in Shandong. There was no need for bribes,’ he refutes. However, if the National Supervisory Commission and the Communist Party’s Discipline Committee step forward, as CNN claims, we should prepare for the worst case of prosecution and criminal trial in China.