Chongqing cheats return soccer title, not trophy
Friday, 24th April 2009 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
The Chinese team that won an international youth championship by stacking itself with pros has said it will let go of its claim on the title, says a Sydney Morning Herald report.For now, it's the principal of Daping School in Chongqing who is taking the heat, according to the SMH story, which quotes Zhang Jianling as saying: "What we have done goes against sportsmanship and has undermined the image of our city as well as soccer's development in China."
Titan, China's biggest sports newspaper, reports in its online edition (here in Chinese) that the school will keep the physical trophy, as a reminder of the shame of the incident.
It's difficult to make sense of all of the blame-shifting that's going on, but the Chinese Football Association still denies any knowledge of the scheme. This is difficult to believe. China's women's professional soccer league isn't widely followed and the matches are generally held in small venues, but this is a busy time of year for the teams. And as is true with every sport in China, players' schedules are closely dictated by their teams' leadership.
Related: Ugliness and Grumbling
Tags: Chongqing Daping, football, Soccer
Comments
This blog item has no attached comments. Be the first! See below...
Comments form
If you'd like to use the comments form for registered users, please login.If you'd like to register, please click here.