Three senior officials of the Chinese Football Association (CFA) were summoned to a meeting attended by police as part of the nationwide crackdown on match-fixing and gambling in the Chinese professional soccer leagues, Soccer News reports.

Vice presidents of CFA, Nan Yong (left) and Yang Yimin (right) watch a game.

On January 15, Friday, vice presidents of the Chinese Football Association CFA, Nan Yong and Yang Yimin were ordered to attend a meeting at the General Administration of Sport. However, they arrived in the evening only to find that besides leaders from the Administration, police were also present.

Around the same time Nan and Yang were taken away by the police, Zhang Jianqiang, former director of the board of referees for CFA was also summoned.

Rumors that the "Big Three" were "missing" began to spread this week when they were absent from some important meetings.

On Thursday, the Ministry of Public Security confirmed that the three officials had been summoned to answer some questions about the ongoing investigation on soccer match-fixing and gambling.

An unprecedented anti-corruption storm started last November to cleanse Chinese soccer which has been long ridden with scandals.

Chinese police have detained at least four former club officials. It is still not clear whether the three officials have been involved in the corruption and scandals but the latest move did show the government's resolution to cleanse Chinese soccer.