Diving Lessons
By HANNAH BEECH Seoul
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CHINA PHOTO/REUTERS
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China failed to score against every team it played in this year's Cup. No surprise, considering this was the country's first time in the finals. But fans back home are whispering that the team wasn't merely incompetent. Rumor has it that players, including star defender Fan Zhiyi, threw the match against Costa Rica, a 2-0 defeat, to make a little cash. A boom in illegal sports gambling has tainted China's soccer league, which uncovered a slew of crooked referees and players fixing games last year. But Fan adamantly denies any wrongdoing, and soccer pundits speculate that Chinese authorities may be encouraging the controversy to discredit him. One of the few Chinese players to make it overseas, Fan, who plays for the Scottish side Dundee, has criticized his home country's league for its outmoded ways. "This is a good way to get Fan to shut up," says a Chinese sportswriter based in Beijing. "Even if it's not true, he has been forced to lower his profile.
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