Those being investigated are eight Chinese football officials, including Chen Xuyuan, President of the CFA.

It was announced last month that Chen, who has led the CFA since 2019, was being probed for a "serious disciplinary violation", Chinese Communist Party (CCP) speak for corruption.

Also under investigation is former men's national football coach Li Tie, who played in the English Premier League for Everton. 

The investigation will likely be expanded past the sports administration and into the commercial and financial departments.

Leading the group will be Li Yingchuan, the former vice-minister of China's General Administration of Sport (GAS) and vice-president of the Chinese Olympic Committee.

Li was involved with the preparations for last year's Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing and has worked with the World Anti-Doping Agency in order to promote clean sports in his country.

Another member of the group will be Yang Xiaodu, the deputy secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), an anti-graft body of the CCP that tackles corruption in the organisation.

Also part of the working group is director of the China Institute of Sport Science and former head of the Chinese national rowing programme Cao Jingwei, along with Gao Hongbo, Sun Wen and Yan Zhanhe.

China's GAS will be controlling the working group and the investigation will be headed by CCDI chief Li Xi, who aims to tackle the "deep-seated systemic" corruption in systemic football following his appointment last October.

China is looking to improve their footballing performance, as their last World Cup appearance was at Japan and South Korea in 2002. 

With FIFA expanding the World Cup from 32 to 48 teams, the nation will have a higher chance of qualifying for the tournament in 2026, due to be co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.