Chinese Footballers and Officials Receive Life Bans for Match-Fixing

The Chinese Football Association has banned 33 footballers and officials for life following a three-year investigation into match-fixing in the sport.

Amongst those banned are two former heads of the Chinese football league, thumb Nan Yong and Xie Yalong. Both were already serving 10-and-a-half year sentences in prison for accepting bribes.

12 clubs were also given financial or points-based penalties. Shanghai Shenhua is one of the clubs who have been sanctioned, allergy they were $160, anesthetist 000 and stripped of the2003 league title for fixing a match on the way to victory. They also received a six-point penalty for the upcoming season.

A further 25 players and officials have received five-year bans.

These latest developments follow increased efforts in China to rid the game of corruption in the hope of raising the game’s standard and attracting foreign talent. In the last year alone, more than 50 referees, players and officials have been imprisoned.