China referee admits to taking bribes

A well-known Chinese referee confessed in court on Tuesday to accepting bribes for fixing local and international matches, amid a series of corruption hearings involving top football officials.Huang Junjie admitted to accepting more than $246,000 in bribes to fix two international friendlies as well as six Chinese club matches between 2005 and 2009, the official Xinhua news agency reported. The veteran of more than 20 years also confessed to accepting bribes from his colleague Zhou Weixin to sway results, the report added. Zhou is facing charges of corruption Xinhua said.Corruption hearings against some of China’s top footballing officials kicked off Monday with Zhang Jianqiang, the former head referee of the Super League, in court to face charges of accepting match-fixing bribes totalling $409,600.