The former President of the Chinese Football Association will spend life behind bars after accepting bribes. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

China has just demonstrated that it is willing to throw the book at those involved in corruption in its sports system. As reported by state media, Chen Xuyuan, the former President of the Chinese Football Association (CFA), will spend life behind bars for match-fixing and other financial crimes.

he leveraged his position to aid companies and individuals he worked with

Chinese courts sentenced the former soccer exec on Tuesday. Xuyuan supposedly accepted bribes amounting to around 77m yuan ($10.6m), a sum the court called “outlandishly high.” In return, he leveraged his position to aid companies and individuals he worked with. As part of the ruling, Chen will also lose all of his personal property and illegal gains, which will go to the state treasury.

This comes as part of a crack down on sports corruption in Communist Party-controlled programs. According to state media, corruption in the sport mainly involves bribes to players and referees intended to produce an outcome that benefits gambling syndicates. However, top officials have also been known to accept bribes to get players spots in training camps for top teams, including the national team.

Xuyan wasn’t the only one punished this week, with officials handing out sentences of between eight years to life in prison to several major names in Chinese sports. Among the other punished officials were National Athletics Association Head Hong Chen, and CEO of the CFA Super League Company Dong Zheng, who received 14 years and eight years, respectively.

Xi Jinping, China’s Head of State and leader of the Communist Party, previously announced that he intended for China to become a soccer superpower. However, fans have often blamed the poor performance of the Chinese national team on corruption among high-level officials.