Chinese Internet users said on Saturday that the punishments on the convicted corrupt soccer officials and referees were too light.

Popular Internet portal Sina.com held an online vote with 82 percent of the respondents saying the sentences were too lenient.

Only 4 percent of the pollees said the punishments were too hard as 14 percent said the sentencing was fair.

The Tieling Intermediate People's Court in northeast China's Liaoning Province on Saturday morning jailed former Chinese soccer deputy chief Yang Yimin and ex-head of referees Zhang Jianqiang for bribery and fixing games.

Yang was sentenced to 10 and a half years in prison after taking bribes totaling 1.25 million yuan (200,000 US dollars), while Zhang received a 12-year prison term for taking bribes worth 2.73 million yuan (433,000 US dollars) on 24 occasions.

Yang and Zhang are among the 39 former soccer officials and club managers and employees who are receiving punishments for their crimes on Saturday.

Yang, who had also supervised the Chinese professional soccer as the CFA league director, had accepted bribes from some 20 domestic clubs and individuals on over 40 occasions, including 10,000 US dollars from Jiangsu Shuntian club, which asked Yang to fix the fitness test results for players.

Yang, who was also fined 200,000 yuan (31,700 US dollars), told the court that he would not appeal the sentence.

"The punishment isn't harsh," Yang's attorney Wang Shujing told the Xinhua reporter. "Yang took bribes as a government official and the harshest punishment for taking bribes as a public servant could be the death penalty."

Zhang, who admitted to taking bribes from Chinese Super League clubs including Shandong Luneng and Shanghai Shenhua, had accepted money from Shenhua to help the club win the 2003 league.

Zhang, who had also been the CFA's women's soccer department director before his arrest, was fined 250,000 yuan (40,000 US dollars). He also didn't intend to appeal.