China slaps lifetime football bans on 43 over gambling, match-fixing

Under President Xi Jinping, Beijing has in recent years deepened a crackdown on corruption in Chinese sports, especially football, and jailed numerous top officials.

Xi is a self-confessed football fanatic who has said he dreams of his country hosting and winning the World Cup.

But that ambition appears further away than ever after repeated corruption scandals and years of disappointing results on the pitch.

The banned 43 were mostly players and among 128 people implicated in total in a two-year probe into illegal gambling and match-fixing in the domestic game, China's public security ministry said, according to state media.

South Korea's midfielder Son Jun-ho gives a press conference on Nov. 22, 2022, during the World Cup in Qatar. Photo by AFP

The news came hours before a home 2026 World Cup qualifier between China and Saudi Arabia, and within a week of the national team suffering a humiliating 7-0 defeat to rivals Japan.

The Chinese Football Association (CFA) accused Son, who played for Shandong Taishan in the Chinese Super League, of participating in match-fixing and taking bribes.

The international midfielder, who appeared in three of South Korea's four matches at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, returned to South Korea in March this year after being held in China since May 2023.

Beijing said at the time that he was detained "on suspicion of accepting bribes by non-state employees", without providing details.

Also on the lifetime ban list is former Chinese international Jin Jingdao, who also played for Shandong Taishan.

Ex-chief jailed

China's football governing body has itself been under scrutiny -- about 10 high-ranking CFA officials have so far been brought down in corruption probes.

The government in March handed a lifetime prison sentence to Chen Xuyuan, the former chairman of the CFA, for receiving what it called "particularly huge" bribes and said his actions "seriously damaged fair competition and order".

Chen took advantage of his positions at the CFA and other bodies to "illegally accept sums of money from other people totalling 81.03 million yuan ($11 million)", the Communist Party-run People's Daily newspaper said.

He "caused serious consequences for the national football industry", it added.

The same month, the former head coach of China's national team and ex-Everton midfielder Li Tie pleaded guilty to accepting over $10.7 million in bribes and helping to fix matches.

And in May, state broadcaster CCTV reported that Gou Zhongwen, former director of the General Administration of Sport of China, was under investigation for corruption.

In August, a Chinese court gave 11 years of jail time to Li Yuyi, a former vice president of the Chinese Football Association, also for taking bribes.

He was also fined $140,000, while assets he obtained through corruption would be confiscated and turned over to the state, the court said.