"China's former football chief and national team coach are among 73 to receive lifetime bans for match-fixing. China's football association has issued lifetime bans to 73 people, including former national team head coach Li Tie, and punished 13 top professional clubs for match-fixing and corruption. Under President Xi Jinping, an anticorruption crackdown has swept through Chinese football in recent years, exposing the rotten state of the professional game."
"Li, a former Everton player who led the national team from 2019 to 2021, is already serving a 20-year prison sentence for bribery, after being sentenced in December 2024. He is now banned from all football activities for life, alongside 72 others, the CFA statement said. Among them is Chen Xuyuan, former chairman of the CFA, who is already serving life in prison for accepting bribes worth $11m."
"The football clubs that will be punished are similarly high-profile. Of the 16 clubs that competed in the 2025 season in the country's top Chinese Super League (CSL), 11 will have points docked and be fined. After relegations, this means that when the 2026 CSL season starts in March, nine teams will start with negative points totals. Tianjin Jinmen Tiger and last season's runners-up Shanghai Shenhua face the stiffest sanctions, with 10-point reductions and one-million-yuan ($144,000) fines."
China's Football Association issued lifetime bans to 73 people for match-fixing, including former national coach Li Tie and former CFA chairman Chen Xuyuan. Li is serving a 20-year prison term for bribery and is banned from all football activities for life; Chen is serving life in prison for accepting bribes worth $11 million. Thirteen top professional clubs were punished, with 11 of 16 Chinese Super League teams docked points and fined; nine teams will start the 2026 CSL season with negative points totals. Tianjin Jinmen Tiger and Shanghai Shenhua face 10-point reductions and one-million-yuan fines. The measures followed a systematic review amid an anticorruption crackdown intended to purify the football environment and maintain fair competition.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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