Since the beginning of October, China's newspapers, TV stations, magazines and the Internet have been buzzing with reports and discussions about Chinese football. The hubbub involves different interest groups like football clubs, fans and the China Football Association (CFA). The fighting among them continues, and the future impact on Chinese football is not clear yet.

Yesterday, the CFA convened a long-awaited executive committee conference in Beijing at the request of the Beijing Hyundai team. On October 2, the Beijing club unilaterally pulled out of their league game against Shenyang Jinde because of what they described as "unfair treatment by the referee". The club was penalized 3 points from their league tally while the referee was suspended for the rest of the season.

The opening of this conference is the result of the efforts from the Chinese Premier League clubs. The Beijing and Dalian clubs have collaborated to threaten the CFA by appealing to a higher court and asking the CFA to apologize to all football fans throughout country. Under such pressure, the CFA agreed to reform the current league management and regulation system and promised to open up its financial books. It is widely believed that the Chinese football league is plagued by irregularities, including unfair refereeing, fixed matches and betting.

Xu Ming, owner of the Dalian Shide club, said after the meeting that all the clubs at the Super League have witnessed the efforts the CFA has made in reforming Chinese soccer during the last decade when the game turned professional. Therefore, the clubs are obliged to help the CFA deepen its reforms at the pro-league in order to solve the current rift and to promote the healthy development of the Super League.

The pictured front page is from The Beijing News, and features a photo of Yan Shiduo, executive vice president of the CFA, surrounded by journalists after the meeting of the Chinese Premier League Commission Standing Committee in Beijing on October 18.