Five soccer club leaders held an emergency meeting Tuesday and welcomed Chinese Football Association's decision of deepening reforms in the field.

Xu Ming, owner of the Dalian Shide club, said after the meeting that all the clubs at the Super League have witnessed the efforts the CFA has made in reforming Chinese soccer during the last decade when the game turned professional. Therefore, the clubs are obliged to help the CFA deepen its reforms at the pro-league, in order to solve the current rift as well as to promote a healthy development of the Super League.

Xu Zexian, Chairman of the Shanghai Zhongyuan club, also welcomed the CFA's decision, saying that as investors, they feel the obligation of helping the CFA in carrying out further reforms.

The Chinese Football Association, or CFA, convened a long-awaited executive committee conference in Beijing on Monday at the request of Beijing Hyundai. On Oct. 2, the Beijing club unilaterally pulled out of their league game against Shenyang Jinde due to what they described as "unfair treatment by the referee". The club was deducted 3 points from the league standings while the referee was suspended for the rest of the season.

(CRI October 20, 2004)