China's General Administration of Sport announced Thursday on its website that China Football Association (CFA) chief Yan Shiduo has stepped down.

Yan, 53, left his position as director of the Football Administrative Center -- the core decision-making body of the CFA -- to serve as chief of the National Sports Training Center. He will be succeeded by Xie Yalong, 49, former head of the Chinese Athletics Association.

Yan has recently been sharply criticized for the national team's abortive 2006 World Cup qualifying campaign and the continuing chaos in the domestic league.

Yan's predecessor at the training center, Sun Changxin, had planned to retire this year but was nevertheless caught by surprise.

"The decision came out somewhat hurriedly. During the Lunar New Year holiday, administration officials said they hoped I would remain in my job for a few more months. But they came today asking me to retire," Sun said.

Yan retains the post of executive vice president of the CFA, but is likely to step down at the next plenary of the domestic soccer governing body, effectively ending his five-year reign as top soccer boss.

Despite the recent discontent, under Yan's leadership China made it to the 2002 World Cup finals -- its first -- in Japan and South Korea.

That was expected to be a turning point in China's soccer fortunes, but the team was a disappointment at the sport's premier event and went downhill from there.

As head of the Chinese Athletics Association, Xie Yalong was best known for clamping down on doping in athletics before the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Most of the athletes affected were Olympic gold medal hopefuls who had trained under the legendary Ma Junren.

Xie moved to a less impressive position as head of the China Institute of Sports Science in 2002 following internal squabbles within the track and field body.

He knows his new job will be no piece of cake.

"What I have now is just a new task. I have no right to say anything about China's soccer without analysis and research. I hope all the people who love and have been concerned about soccer give me some time and I'll give you the answers step by step," Xie said.

Xie, noting that many factors had led to today's predicament in Chinese soccer, said Yan was "no loser."

The scandal-tainted Chinese Super League may still go ahead despite its lack of a sponsor. German electronics giant Siemens earlier decided not to renew its contract with the league.

The clubs that were once lavish spenders have been hit with massive pay cuts that have left many soccer players unemployed, a number of them national players.

"These are certainly hard times for the new boss," a CFA official told a sports website. "The priority surely should be the financial problems, but what we need is an overhaul rather than a patch-up."

An official who refused to be named said that Yan's transfer is not a demotion, as the training center and the CFA are affiliated organizations. Since the training center handles logistics for other departments, the move gets Yan out of the hot seat and is fairly a clever choice, said the official.

(Shanghai Daily, China.org.cn February 18, 2005)