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The Chinese Football Association banned 33 officials and players for life at the conclusion
of a three-year investigation into corruption in the Chinese Super League (CSL).
Among those banned were former association chiefs Nan Yong and Xie Yalong, who were sentenced
last year to 10 and a half years in prison each.
The 12 clubs that were involved in match-fixing were fined by the Chinese authorities.
Shanghai Shenhua, briefly home to Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka, has been stripped of its
2003 league title and fined 160,000 USD.
Shenhua were also docked six points for the coming season as part of its punishment for
fixing the result of a game against Shanxi Guoli on its way to the 2003 title.
Violations cited by the CFA included match fixing, bribe taking and receiving, and gambling
- some of the charges dating back a decade or more.
A recent push to attract big-name international talent has raised questions, both about the
ability of teams to pay the huge salaries and the suffocating effect that is having
on the development of local talent.
Drogba signed to Shenhua with much fanfare last May, but left in January to join Galatasaray
of Istanbul, citing the Chinese club's failure to pay wages.