FIFA extends China match-fixing bans worldwide

Match-fixing bans on 58 Chinese soccer officials and players will be extended worldwide, the sport's governing body FIFA said on Monday.

Earlier this month, the Chinese Football Association's (CFA) disciplinary committee gave five-year suspensions to 25 people while the remaining 33 were banned from all football activities for life following a probe into match-fixing in the 1990s and early 2000s.

“The Chairman of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee has extended the sanctions to have worldwide effect,” a FIFA statement said.

“In taking those sanctions and notifying FIFA of them, the CFA has emphasised its on-going commitment to stamping out all forms of match-fixing and corruption in the game. The CFA set up a special task force consisting of members of the CFA disciplinary committee in March 2012 to make recommendations based on the investigations.”

FIFA has been keen to crack down on corruption after European anti-crime agency Europol caused consternation in the game when it announced on February 4 that around 680 matches globally were suspected to have been fixed in a betting scam run from Singapore.

Critics said many of the matches were already known about.