Sunshine Daily, February 25, 2010

More scandal news from the Chinese soccer world, this time involving a case of blatant match-fixing.

At the end of a September 2 match between Qingdao Hailifeng and Sichuan Zhigu, with Hailifeng leading 3 to 0, club president Du Yunqi ordered team captain Du Bin to give up a goal. Apparently, Du was betting on an international gambling site and realized that a closer margin of victory would result in a bigger take.

Sunshine Daily and a number of other papers ran Xinhua's helpful diagram on the front page:

1. After receiving orders, player Feng XX forcefully "passes back" a ground ball, which heads straight toward the keeper, who blocks it.

2. Following the failed first shot, Du Bin has Li X try for another own goal. Li takes a slow shot, which the goalie again blocks.

3. As time is about to run out, Du Bin gestures for the goalie to leave the penalty box. Then Zhang XX, a young player, takes a chip shot over the goalie's head. It rolls out of bounds.

The chip shot, unlike the first two attempts, could not be explained away as a strategic pass back to the goalie, and thus the scandal had a name, "chip-shot gate" (吊射门).

Qingdao Hailifeng was ultimately unable to achieve an own goal, but it still found itself facing a 200,000 yuan and ejection from the league. Du Yunqi, who penalized the players involved as part of a cover-up, was arrested, as was Du Bin.