By Olukayode Olumuyiwa.
If you’ve been following the Chinese Super League (CSL) over the last decade, you remember the Gold Rush. It was a wild era where teams were throwing hundreds of millions at stars like Oscar and Hulk, trying to buy instant global relevance. But while the front porch was being painted gold, the foundation was being eaten alive by termites.
Today, the house has finally collapsed. With 73 people slapped with lifetime bans and 13 professional clubs penalized—leaving almost an entire league starting the next season in the negatives—we are watching a desperate, scorched-earth attempt to reboot a system that has completely crashed.
From National Hero to National Scandal
The fall of Li Tie is arguably the most jarring part of this saga. He wasn’t just some backroom official; he was a household name who reached the pinnacle of the sport by playing in the English Premier League. When he took over the national team in 2019, he was supposed to be the local boy made good who would lead China to glory.
Instead, he’s now the face of a 20-year prison sentence. It turns out the ladder to the top wasn’t built on tactical genius, but on a series of donations and fixed matches. When you realize the former Chairman of the CFA, Chen Xuyuan, is also in a cell for taking $11m in bribes, it becomes clear: corruption wasn’t an exception to the rule—it was the business model.
A Financial Ghost Town
But the rot isn’t just moral; it’s financial. That Gold Rush money? It was a mirage.
The most heartbreaking example is Guangzhou FC. Just a few years ago, they were the Real Madrid of Asia, with eight league titles and two Asian Champions League trophies in the cabinet. By January 2025, the club didn’t just decline—it dissolved. They couldn’t pay their players or settle their debts, and they simply ceased to exist.
When you see 11 out of 16 top-tier teams being hit with point deductions today, you have to ask: who’s next? Starting the 2026 season with -10 points and a massive fine (the fate of Tianjin Jinmen Tiger and Shanghai Shenhua) is more than a penalty; for clubs already gasping for air, it’s a death sentence.
Here is the verified full list of the 13 penalized clubs and their specific punishments:
Chinese Super League (CSL) Clubs:
- Shanghai Shenhua: -10 points, 1 million yuan ($144,000) fine
- Tianjin Jinmen Tiger: -10 points, 1 million yuan ($144,000) fine
- Qingdao Hainiu: -7 points
- Henan FC: -6 points
- Shandong Taishan: -6 points
- Zhejiang FC: -5 points
- Beijing Guoan: -5 points, 400,000 yuan ($57,600) fine
- Shanghai Port: -5 points, 400,000 yuan ($57,600) fine
- Wuhan Three Towns: -5 points
- Changchun Yatai: -4 points
- Meizhou Hakka: -3 points
China League One Clubs:
- Suzhou Dongwu: -3 points
- Ningbo FC: -3 points
(Penalties are based on the severity of involvement in match-fixing, gambling, and bribery.)
The Basketball Betrayal: Death, Taxes, and the CBA
If football is suffering from a slow financial rot, basketball just got hit by an international lightning strike. On January 15, 2026, U.S. federal prosecutors dropped a bombshell indictment against 26 people, including former NBA player Antonio Blakeney.
The scheme didn’t start in the U.S.—it was born in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). The fixers’ logic was chillingly simple. One of them actually messaged a co-conspirator that there are only three guarantees in life: death, taxes, and Chinese basketball.
- The Hustle: Fixers paid players $10,000 to $30,000 a game to point-shave (intentionally play just bad enough to hit a betting line).
- The Evidence: The FBI found $200,000 in cash stuffed into a Florida storage unit—all proceeds from rigging CBA games.
- The Export: Once they realized how easy it was to fix games in China, they moved the operation to the U.S., rigging at least 29 NCAA college games.
The Death of the World Cup Dream
President Xi Jinping has always had a three-stage plan: Qualify for a World Cup, host a World Cup, and win a World Cup. Right now, he’s 0-for-3.
China failed to qualify for the 2026 tournament, and it’s no mystery why. You cannot develop world-class talent in an environment where players and refs are more worried about the betting odds than the scoreline. While the government is purifying the league by throwing legends in prison, the actual quality of play is plummeting.
The Bottom Line
Whether it’s the empty stadiums of dissolved football clubs or the FBI unsealing indictments against basketball players, the story is the same: when the chase for money outpaces the love for the game, everyone loses. The 2026 season kicks off in March, but for the fans, it’s hard to cheer when you don’t know if the game you’re watching is a sport or a script. China is trying to prove it has zero tolerance, but you have to wonder if there will be anything left to save once the purge is finally over.
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