Match fixing plagued Chinese soccer, reaching a catastrophic peak during the pandemic when matches were held in empty stadiums. Coaches and managers would clandestinely buy and sell games, while players, fully aware of the rigged outcomes, bet regularly against their own teams. The slimy underbelly of Chinese soccer came to light with Jiangsu Suning, a Chinese Super League team, battling Taizhou Yuanda in Nanjing in 2020.
According to one player, this period was the zenith of corruption. A former Chinese Super League player, speaking anonymously to The South China Morning Post, revealed the scale of the deceit. Recently, the China Football Association issued lifetime bans to 43 players and officials after a thorough investigation into widespread corruption and match-fixing.
The probe implicated about 120 matches, 128 criminal suspects, and 41 teams, authorities reported. High-profile casualties of this scandal included former Chinese internationals Jin Jingdao, Guo Tianyu, and Gu Chao, alongside South Korean international and World Cup star Son Jun-ho, who also faced a ban. Days after the bans, Son Jun-ho recounted in a South Korean press conference how he was detained by Chinese authorities for almost a year and “coerced” into admitting to bribery charges.
He claimed the police threatened his family, showing him pictures of his children and warning they would arrest his wife unless he confessed, which he insists he didn’t fully comprehend. Observers in the soccer world.