A former soccer official, two former top referees and a club manager appeared at court hearings yesterday as the third day of soccer corruption trials opened in Northeast China's Liaoning Province.

Those who stood trial yesterday included Yang Yiming, former deputy director of the Chinese Football Association (CFA), Lü Feng, former general manager of the Chinese Football Association Super League Co (CSL) and two well-known referees Lu Jun and Wan Daxue.

Lu, China's "Golden Whistle" who had officiated in World Cup and Olympic matches, admitted to taking a total of 810,000 yuan ($128,000) in bribes for fixing seven league games involving four clubs.

The Intermediate People's Court of Dandong heard evidence that Shanghai Shenhua Club spent 5.5 million yuan ($870,000) to bribe officials and referees, including 700,000 yuan which was shared by Lu and Zhang Jianqiang.

Zhang, former head of the CFA's referee commission, was the first official to stand trial as corruption hearings against some of China's top soccer officials opened on Monday.

Lu also took bribes to sway game results as a middleman, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Earlier in the day, Yang Yimin went on trial. Yang, who used to be deputy head of both the CFA and the Chinese Football Administrative Center, stood trial for taking bribes in the Intermediate People's Court of Tieling.

Yang was accused of taking more than 40 bribes amounting to 1.25 million yuan ($197,700) in the form of medical expenses for his wife and tuition fees for his child, China Central Television reported.

China's professional leagues have been plagued with allegations of gambling, match-fixing and crooked referees for years, which, coupled with the national side's poor performances, have long made the sport a source of disappointment for diehard fans.

The nationwide crackdown on gambling and match-fixing started in March 2009, when a high-profile committee was set up by 12 ministry-level bodies to clean up corruption in Chinese soccer.

Since then, officials, referees and former players have been detained for their involvement in corruption and match-fixing.

During yesterday's trial, Lü Feng, former manger of the CSL, was accused of taking 1.4 million yuan in bribes and giving 50,000 yuan in bribes to Nan Yong.

Wan Daxue was also reported to have received 940,000 yuan to fix games for several soccer clubs.

"The soccer industry is very likely to see corruption because it's very profitable," said Zhang Lu, vice president of Beijing Guoan Football Club Company.