Former World Cup referee among nine Chinese officials convicted on corruption charges

Former World Cup referee Lu Jun is among nine Chinese officials to be jailed on Thursday for taking bribes to fix matches.

Sina Sports reported the trials in the north-eastern city of Dandong were all part of a concerted effort to clean up Chinese football after years of corruption.

Lu Jun, who twice won the AFC referee of the year award, was one of four referees jailed for fixing matches, with cases such as wrongly awarded penalties.

The other referees; Huang Junjie (seven years), Wan Daxue (six years) and Zhou Weixin (three-and-a-half years) - received a range of sentences, while Lu Jun was jailed for five years and fined RMB810,000 (€100,000).

Lu Jun was the first ever Chinese referee to officiate at the World Cup, when he took charge of several games at the event in 2002 in South Korea and Japan. It's understood he took bribes to fix seven games during 2003.

BBC reported four Chinese clubs were involved in the scandal, including big-spending Shanghai Shenhua, who recently signed Nicolas Anelka.

Former Chinese Super League corporation manager Lu Feng was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in jail.

Ex-Chinese Football Association vice-president Nan Yong and his predecessor Xie Yalong are among other senior officials awaiting trial.