Three soccer officials held in graft crackdown

Three Chinese Football Association (CFA) officials, including Nan Yong, former head of soccer in China, have been put under criminal detention, becoming the most senior officials to be hit in a crackdown on soccer corruption, the Ministry of Public Security said yesterday.

The ministry also unveiled the latest and largest case so far on match-fixing. Fan Guangming, another former CFA official, was confirmed as an intermediate in a 1.5 million-yuan ($219,000) match-fixing deal, the ministry said.

Nan was taken away by police for questioning on Jan 15 from his office at the General Administration of Sport of China and subsequently dismissed from his position as executive vice-president of the CFA last Thursday.