Hat’s off to China’s media – both the orthodox and online community – for trashing a sporting success story that seemed too good to be true -- and was! No, I'm not talking about those baby-faced Chinese gymnasts’ birth certificates; that was last year. Rather, this is a tale about a high school girls soccer team and the education-com-sporting fraternity that corrupted kids in a scheme to win an international tournament in a foreign land through cheating and lying. Nick Mackie reports.
“It has damaged the image of the nation and Chongqing,” said a remorseful Zhang Jianling, headmaster of Chongqing Da Ping Middle School. “We are so sorry.” On Wednesday morning, in time honoured fashion, Chongqing’s Yuzhong District authority wheeled-out its fall guy – well, of sorts.
That’s because Zhang still has his job as the school’s chief guardian of rectitude – though he took an administrative slap on the knuckles, with a warning to refrain from teaching trickery in future. And it’s my guess that the government hopes that this story is now buried.
If critical voices in the media get their way, however, this tale should just be the start of an ongoing debate and expose about the moral vacuum in China, about how even those supposed to teach by example are leading the nation's youth into dishonesty and fraud -- and, hopefully, about those responsible getting their just punishment.
For it was simply not possible for a school head to act alone.
COOL COMPOSURE
You can’t take a bunch of students out of China without approval from various levels of the educational establishment. And these bureaucrats are very careful. They want to know all the fine details of such a trip. In the case of this story, those in charge of sport at a national level would normally also be in the know – because it involved a high-profile event abroad and two rows full of young national-level athletes on a jumbo jet flying overseas.
And, incidentally, the chief coach of the national youth team, Zhao Lichun, was with the Da Ping squad on their foreign adventure, registered as the school’s assistant coach!
So what happened ?
Chongqing’s Da Ping Middle School won the recent “Schools World Cup”, or by its official title, the International School Sport Federation’s tournament in Turkey on April 13th.
The Chongqing Daily initially praised the players for their, “cool composure (that) finally brought them a well-deserved victory”. Reporters were somewhat startled by the news, however, as Da Ping was ranked a lowly No.7 in the national standings.
A CUNNING PLAN
The biggest surprise-surprise came when the media turned up to speak with the victors. For some reason, school security personnel were under strict instructions to bar entry to journalists. The Chongqing press were later issued with an edict: no reporting on the school’s soccer story.
Now, in a country that goes totally overboard when any athlete is victorious against foreign opposition, this is really weird! By this time, reporters from around the country were also curious.
One persistent soul managed to speak with the school’s coach. And, according to reports on the popular internet news site Sina.com , the coach came clean.
All but three of the 18 players don’t even live in Chongqing. The lion’s share of the team are part of the state-funded national youth squad.
According to the Sina.com report – which the censors have not removed - some senior official in the Ministry of Education had told the school coach that his team must finish in the top three. So, fearing that his girls wouldn’t deliver, the coach hatched a scheme to recruit ringers from the national squad.
The state-run news agency and government mouthpiece, Xinhua, does not acknowledge this claim. But it’s calling on a thorough investigation to reveal the plotters - adding that it should be transparent, involving the public and online community at large.
CCTV Sport – the website of the state broadcaster – writes that government departments related to the soccer trip have told the school to shut up, for fear that additional officials are implicated.
As for Zhao, the national youth coach, he says the Chinese Football Association was not a party to this tournament – and so he knew nothing about the rules reguiring that all participating players must be enrolled full time in the schools for which they played.
Another critical news portal, Sohu, clearly doesn’t believe the Chinese Football Association – arguing that the arm of government that controls soccer has a say in any representation abroad by a Chinese team.
Moreover, Sohu bemoans the sad fact that faking is commonplace in China’s sporting world: from referees and players throwing games for gambling wins, to parents, players, team coaches faking ages for competitive advantage. Usually this happens in professional sport, though universities are also tarnished.
Now, cheating is part and parcel of school sports.
YOU THINK WE’RE ALL IDIOTS
In the blogosphere, scribes are angry – especially towards the Chinese Football Association and its “my hands are clean” stance. “You think we’re all idiots?” screams one of Sina.com’s 2400 comments to date.
Others call on the local and national education authorities to stand up and take responsibility. They appreciate the Da Ping school’s apology – but add that everyone knows the school alone was not able to organize a team full of national players to go abroad.
Bloggers on Tianya have been quick to point out that the Chongqing district authority is now acting as the judge -- having presented the school’s headmaster to reporters on Wednesday to take the rap. Some conclude, however, that this reeks of the poacher turning game warden.
As for me, the main Chongqing Municipality Education Department refused an interview to explain its involvement in the cheating fiasco, while the related district authority has yet to respond. With bated breath, I look forward to a call, or an email, from the Belgium-based International School Sport Federation: will it strip China of the title, will there be fines, will China be barred from future tournaments? For that matter, will anyone but headmaster Zhang take the blame for this widening, and shameful, scandal?
