China’s Football Association bans 43 people for life after corruption investigation

DALIAN, China (AP) — China’s Football Association has banned 43 people for life over allegations of match fixing and other forms of corruption in the latest effort to weed out graft in the county’s notoriously underperforming team sport.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday that Zhang Xiaopeng, a top police official, gave out details of a “two-year investigation that uncovered a series of online gambling, match-fixing and bribery cases.”

Xinhua said 120 matches, 128 criminal suspects, and 41 clubs were implicated in the investigation.

Of those banned, 38 were players and five were club officials. Other players and officials were given shortened bans, including foreign players lured to China by the promise of high salaries.

China was playing Saudi Arabia at Dalian later Tuesday in the third round of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup.

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