Soccer referees going to prison for game-fixing

SHENYANG - Soccer players and commentators were saying the jail sentences four match-fixing referees received on Thursday were not enough to clean up Chinese soccer.

"Golden Whistle" Lu Jun, once regarded as the nation's top referee for being the only one in China to referee in the World Cup, was sentenced to five years and six months for accepting 810,000 yuan ($129,000) in bribes from 1999 to 2003.

Other bribe-taking referees got jail sentences from three and half to seven years in courts of Northeast China's border city, Dandong.