ZURICH — Match-fixing bans on 58 Chinese soccer officials and players will be extended worldwide, the sport's governing body FIFA said Monday. The 58 were banned by the Chinese Football Association (CFA) on Feb. 18 following a three-year push to clean up rampant corruption in the sport in China. “The sanctions by the Chinese Football Association's disciplinary committee involve players and officials, with 25 receiving a five-year ban from all football activities while the remaining 33 individuals were banned from all football activities for life,” a FIFA statement said. “In taking those sanctions and notifying FIFA of them, the CFA has emphasized its on-going commitment to stamping out all forms of match-fixing and corruption in the game.” China's Xinhua news agency reported last week that the 58 included two former football chiefs who were jailed in June for accepting bribes in a scandal. Nan Yong, the former head of Chinese football, was sentenced to 10-and-a-half years for taking bribes worth more than 1.48 million yuan ($237,500) while his predecessor Xie Yalong received an identical sentence and was also fined 200,000 yuan. Former CFA deputy head Yang Yimin and World Cup referee Lu Jun, once hailed as China's “Golden Whistle”, were also among the 33 banned from football for life. Others included four former Chinese national team players Shen Si, Qi Hong, Jiang Jin and Li Ming, all jailed for up to six years in June for match-fixing. Super League club Shanghai Shenhua, who recently lost big name strikers Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka to Galatasaray and Juventus, was fined one million yuan and deducted six points for next season for fixing a game in their 2003 league-winning campaign. FIFA has been especially keen to be seen to be cracking down on corruption after European anti-crime agency Europol caused consternation in the game when it announced on Feb. 4 that around 680 matches were suspected to have been fixed in a global betting scam run from Singapore. CONCACAF supports changes CONCACAF, which represents soccer in North and Central America and the Caribbean, has backed a proposal to limit the FIFA presidency to two four-year terms and to impose an age limit of 72 for the president. CONCACAF, whose 40 member associations compromise just under one fifth of the FIFA total of 209, also supported the same age limit for FIFA executive committee candidates, who would be limited to three four-year terms under the proposed reform. FIFA is to discuss and vote on proposed changes at its congress in Mauritius in May in a bid to make itself more transparent and accountable following string of corruption scandals. Each of the 209 member associations holds one vote. European soccer's governing body UEFA had opposed the eight-year limit for the FIFA president, instead suggesting a first term of eight years followed by a second of four. — Agencies
