A two-year investigation conducted by the Chinese Football Association has resulted in 38 soccer players and five club officials being banned for life due to match-fixing and gambling, according to Reuters.
A total of 120 matches involving 41 football clubs were found to have been fixed. However, further details on the location of these matches were not confirmed by the state official from China’s Ministry of Public Scrutiny.
Players receiving lifetime bans include three former Chinese internationals, Jin Jingdao, Guo Tianyu, and Gu Chao, alongside South Korean soccer player, Son Jun-ho, based on these public findings revealed in a press conference by the Ministry and General Administration of Sport of China, attended by CFA’s president.
The players have made no public comments and Son was detained for 10 months following his release in March and has returned to South Korea. The Chinese state official, Zhang Xiaopeng, stated that 44 individuals face criminal penalties for engaging in bribery, gambling, and illegal opening of casinos. Seventeen others were charged with bribery and match-fixing.
Fourty-three of the 44 individuals have been banned for life from football-related activities in China, with 17 others receiving five-year bans from the sport, according to CFA president Song Kai.
China just had a former CFA chairman sentenced to life in prison in March, while a former VP of the national football association received an 11-year prison sentence for accepting bribes. Another former director of the competition department received a seven-year prison sentence for bribery as well.
Sports integrity has been challenged throughout the globe in 2024.
