Scandal-ridden Chinese soccer gets in foul trouble again

Anti-corruption efforts again being felt throughout soccer ecosystem

20230428 FIFA

Chinese Football Association President Chen Xuyuan, right, and Deputy Director of the General Administration of Sport of China Du Zhaocai, left, meet with FIFA President Gianni Infantino in Shanghai in 2019. China was to host the FIFA Club World Cup in 2021. (Imaginechina via AP Images)

QIN JIANHANG and KELLY WANG, Caixin

On April 13, deputy director of China's top sports administration Du Zhaocai was dismissed from his vice-ministerial level position, less than two weeks after he was placed under investigation by national graft busters.

Du, also the party secretary of the Chinese Football Association (CFA), is the highest-ranking administrative official ensnared so far in the country's sweeping corruption crackdown on the sport, which has long been in the spotlight for the wrong reasons, ranging from match-fixing and its players' lavish salaries to the men's national team's widely panned playing record.

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