The term "judicial intervention" has finally appeared in relevant regulations of the China Football Association (CFA). The recently released "Regulations on the Management of Players of China Football Association" clearly provides, in Article 41 of Chapter 7 that footballers violating State laws shall be handed over to the State's judicial organization and punished according to law.

The Regulations provides that, with regard to athletes breaking the regulation, the Commission for Discipline Inspection of CFA or related clubs may give them the following penalties according to the seriousness of their cases: criticism and education, deduction of one to three monthly wages (only applied to divisions A and B), suspending their participation in a number of matches or for a certain period of time, disqualifying them from contests for over one year or even for their whole lives, and those violating State laws shall be transferred to judicial departments. The last Article was newly revised and substantiated.

(People's Daily 01/21/01)