Any NBA fan can easily recall the shame professional basketball felt over the Tim Donaghy scandal and its ramifications over the perception of the sport and its referees. Certainly, it was the darkest moment for the NBA since either the Kermit Washington punch or Ricky Davis’ career.
China Might Actually Literally Kill Its Bribe-Taking Soccer Referees
↵But here’s the thing: there was never any talk of Donaghy getting the death penalty.
↵Not so in China, friends; there, a highly regarded referee and two of his compatriots were jailed after an investigation revealed evidence that they’d accepted bribes. If convicted, bad things are to ensue:
↵↵Three referees, including the once-renowned “golden whistler” Lu Jun from Beijing, have been arrested on charges of accepting bribes in the home league, the news was confirmed by the country’s newly appointed president of the soccer association, Mr. Wei Di.
↵Sources disclosed that the arrest of the three celebrated referees is an indication that the authorities have solid evidence of their involvement in match fixing and asking for benefits from the vested soccer clubs.
↵[...] Lu, 51, who has umpired more than 200 matches in the domestic league between 1991 and 2005, and was once deemed as the most fair referee on courts. He became the first Chinese to supervise the renowned World Cup games when he umpired two matches at the 2002 Cup tournaments held in Japan and South Korea. He has also been conferred with the “Referee of the Year” award by the Asian Football Confederation twice.
↵↵Okay, so that’s not good. Let’s make things worse!
↵↵[I]f Jun is found guilty for accepting bribes as a public servant then he could face the death penalty. The average sentence for state servants who are found guilty for taking bribes of more than $14,705 is between ten years and death.
↵↵
The pedant in us insists that we point out one thing: "between ten years and death" is, by definition, not an "average." That aside, good grief, that's bad news.
↵Of course, it’s only fair to wonder whether the people offering the bribes are also in danger of being executed. Else, there’d be a severe imbalance in justice, and far less disincentive to offer the bribes that may eventually lead to someone’s state-ordered death. That’s happening too, right?
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