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China’s Football Association has cleaned house and banned 43 individuals for life after a 2-year investigation into widespread corruption turned up a complex network of bribery, match fixing, and more.
Reported last week by China‘s Xinhua News Agency, a Chinese police official by the name of Zhang Xiaopeng released details to the public.
At a press conference, Xiaopeng revealed 41 clubs, 120 matches in the Chinese domestic league, and 128 suspects were implicated in the 2-year investigation, according to ESPN. Of those 128 criminal suspects, 5 were individuals working for various clubs and 38 were players in the domestic league.
It is worth noting that this comes in the near-immediate aftermath of an Olympics doping scandal among Chinese swimmers, a scandal that was so suspicious the IOC threatened the USA to stand down from investigating or risk losing the 2034 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
According to reports, Jin Jingdao, Guo Tianyu, and Gu Chao (former Chinese international athletes) all received lifetime bans from the sport.
Another person who received a ban was Son Jun-ho of South Korea who played for China’s Shandong Taishan FC. Cameroon’s Ewolo Donovan also received a 5-year ban after previously playing for Heilongjiang Ice City.
This is all a pretty damning look for the Chinese Football Association as they attempt to qualify for the expanded World Cup.
Their chances are dismal as they rank close to 90th in the world but the nation has pledged to pour resources into the sport in hopes of emerging as a soccer superpower, something that’s yet to materialize in any form and must now deal with these match fixing and bribery findings.