Soccer cleanup ends in life bans and lost titles
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E-mail Xinhua, February 19, 2013
The Chinese Football Association has stripped Shanghai Shenhua of the 2003 league title and banned two former national soccer chiefs and 31 other people for life, rounding off a three-year-long drive to clean up Chinese soccer.
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CFA has stripped Shanghai Shenhua of the 2003 league title. |
The Shanghai club, among 12 clubs which received "disciplinary punishments" from the association yesterday, was fined 1 million yuan (US$160,000) and had six points deducted for next season.
Shenhua was found guilty of fixing a game against Shanxi Guoli on its way to winning the 2003 title.
Those banned for life from soccer-related activities included former soccer chiefs Nan Yong and Xie Yalong, both serving 10 1/2 years in jail for taking bribes, former deputy head Yang Yimin, 2002 World Cup referee Lu Jun and four international players - Shen Si, Qi Hong, Jiang Jin and Li Ming - who are serving five-and-half-year sentences, also for taking bribes.
"These violations of CFA regulations include match-fixing, bribes giving and taking, and gambling," said a spokesman for the CFA discipline commission.
"Some violations dated back to over 10 years ago."
The spokesman blamed "the lack of legal criteria, an imperfect soccer system and lax supervision and management" for rampant corruption in Chinese soccer.
Former international Xu Hong, who recently took the helm of super league club Dalian Arbin as head coach, was among 25 people banned from the game for five years.
Super league club Tianjin Teda was fined 1 million yuan and will start next season six points down for fixing a game against Shanghai International in 2003.
Jilin Yanbian, a northeastern Chinese club, was fined 500,000 yuan and deducted three points for throwing a match in 2006.
Yu Changlong, deputy sports head of Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in Jilin Province, disputed the punishment. "I just say one word - appeal," Yu said.
The discipline committee demanded Shenhua, Teda and Yanbian return awards won during years of wrongdoing.
Shandong Luneng was fined 1 million yuan, and Changchun Yatai, Jiangsu Shuntin and Henan Jianye fined 500,000 yuan each on bribery charges.
The soccer-cleanup campaign was launched in 2009.
The announcement of punishments came after Wei Di stepped down as CFA chief following a three-year tenure which saw the sport's shameful past of match-fixing and bribery finally tackled.
