Chinese FA bans 38 players and five club officials for life in corruption crackdown

The Chinese Football Association has banned for life 38 footballers and five club officials after a two-year investigation into match-fixing and gambling, as part of a crackdown on corruption in one of China’s most popular sports.

The investigation found that 120 matches had been fixed, with 41 clubs involved, Zhang Xiaopeng, a senior official from the ministry of public security, told a press conference in Dalian, according to the official Xinhua news agency. The report did not say whether all the matches were in China.

The former China internationals Jin Jingdao and Gu Chao and the South Korea midfielder Son Jun-ho were among those banned for life, according to findings made public on Tuesday at the press conference.

None of the players have made any public comment. Son’s agent, Park Dae-yeon, said it was “ridiculous” to accuse his client of match-fixing and that they would hold a press conference “to say everything we have to say”. Son was released in March after being detained for 10 months in China and returned to South Korea, where he plays for Suwon.

Suwon’s sporting director, Choi Soon-ho, said the club would continue to field Son unless ordered not to do so because the CFA ruling “doesn’t apply to us”. Choi said: “He vehemently denied bribery charges when he signed with us and I respect that.”

Zhang said 44 individuals faced criminal penalties for bribery, gambling and the illegal opening of casinos, and 17 others were found to have engaged in bribery and match-fixing.

The CFA’s president, Song Kai, said 43 of the 44 had been banned for life from football-related activities, and 17 others received five-year bans. The sport has long grappled with corruption, which fans have blamed for the underperformance of the men’s national team.

In August, a former vice president of the national football association was sentenced to 11 years in prison for accepting bribes, and a former director of the competition department was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for the same offence. A former chairman of the CFA was sentenced to life in prison in March.