Chinese high school admits to using national team ringers for girls’ soccer tournament

Chinese school admits age fraud in soccer tourney

BEIJING — A Chinese high school principal has admitted his girls’ soccer team was filled with players from the junior national squad and apologized for the fraud, state media reported Friday.

Daping Junior High’s Zhang Jianling said that only three of the 15 team members sent to an international girls tournament in Turkey actually attended his school in the Yuzhong district of the western city of Chongqing.

According to the official regulations posted on the International School Sport Federation’s Web site, players were required to be enrolled full time at the schools they played for.

The scandal shines an unflattering light on alleged cheating in Chinese sports through falsifying athletes’ credentials, usually at the behest of coaches or state sports officials.