China bans 73 and punishes top football clubs in latest corruption scandal

China’s former football chief and national team coach are among 73 to receive lifetime bans for match-fixing.Published On 29 Jan 2026China’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.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Italy’s Winter Olympics security plan keeps ICE in advisory rolelist 2 of 4Boxing: Fury to return to the ring against Makhmudov in Aprillist 3 of 4‘I didn’t set out to break records’: Pakistan’s first female MMA fighterlist 4 of 4Why is Pakistan backing Bangladesh in its T20 World Cup row with India?end of listSeveral top officials in the Chinese Football Association (CFA) have been brought down, while dozens of players have been banned for match-fixing and gambling.A statement on Thursday evening did not specify when the most recently announced match-fixing took place, or how it worked.The punishments were made after a “systematic review” and were needed “to enforce industry discipline, purify the football environment, and maintain fair competition”, the CFA wrote on its official social media account on Thursday.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.