ZURICH: Match-fixing bans on 58 Chinese soccer officials and players will be extended worldwide, the sport’s governing body FIFA said yesterday.
The 58 were banned by the Chinese Football Association (CFA) on February 18 following a three-year push to clean up rampant corruption in the sport in China.
“The sanctions by the Chinese Football Association’s disciplinary committee involve players and officials, with 25 receiving a five-year ban from all football activities while the remaining 33 individuals were banned from all football activities for life,” a FIFA statement said.
“The Chairman of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee has extended the sanctions to have worldwide effect.
“In taking those sanctions and notifying FIFA of them, the CFA has emphasised its on-going commitment to stamping out all forms of match-fixing and corruption in the game.”
China’s Xinhua news agency reported last week that the 58 included two former football chiefs who were jailed in June for accepting bribes in a scandal.
Nan Yong, the former head of Chinese football, was sentenced to 10 and a half years for taking bribes worth more than 1.48 million yuan ($237,500) while his predecessor Xie Yalong received an identical sentence and was also fined 200,000 yuan.
Former CFA deputy head Yang Yimin and World Cup referee Lu Jun, once hailed as China’s “Golden Whistle”, were also among the 33 banned from football for life.
Others included four former Chinese national team players Shen Si, Qi Hong, Jiang Jin and Li Ming, all jailed for up to six years in June for match-fixing.
Meanwhile, FIFA said that it had handed out a third licence for revolutionary goal-line technology (GLT), as football’s governing body seeks to have a system in place in time for next year’s World Cup finals in Brazil. REUTERS
