Lu Jun - topmost Chinese football referee locked up on corruption charges

The person who was formerly China's high rank football referee has been punished to five-and-a-half years in imprisonment for taking bribes to fix matches.

Lu Jun - who presided at the World Cup - was one of nine people find guilty of accusations attached to dishonesty inside Chinese football.

The defendants were detained following an inquiry initiated to attempt to cleaning the game in China.

Several sorts of other cases are still pending.

Lu Jun, once called the "golden whistle", was the first Chinese referee to take charge of a World Cup match, at the 2002 occasion congregated by Japan and South Korea.

He was also two time named referee of the year by the Asian Football Confederation.

But now he has been sent to jail after accepting taking kickbacks worth more than $128,000 (£82,000) to fix the conclusions of seven league football games, some in 2003.

 These kickbacks involved four clubs, as well as Shanghai Shenhua, which has just signed French soccer star Nicolas Anelka.

The court, in the north-eastern city of Dandong, listens to how the Shanghai club had used up nearly $1m bribing officials and referees, including Lu Jun.The referee was one of a unit of nine people – as well as other referees and executives - convicted following an inquiry. They were given punishments sorting from no time in imprisonment to seven years behind bars.

Soccer star Nicolas Anelka arrived on Wednesday to play for Shanghai Shenhua

There were stories of a faulty-awarded fine, the fixing of international forthcoming matches and betting.

In China, dishonest referees have become identified as "black whistles".

Numbers of people - referees, players, executives and coaches - have been detained following an operation to clean up Chinese football, initiated in 2009.

Bribery has destroyed the striking game here for some years, top numerous Chinese fans to support European teams in its place.

Last season, while there was fresh investment - and eagerness- for football in China. That has been discriminated with the arrival of Anelka.

But the investigation of two past senior executives in the Chinese Football Association - the two larger fishes, as the state-run news agency Xinhua calls them - have yet to begin.