three other players were in collusion with gambling groups and were immediately expelled from the club. In 2001, the Guangzhou Sports Bureau took over the club again. With significant investment coming from the Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd it was hoped that the club could push for promotion. The division was rocked by a match-fixing scandal involving Changchun Yatai, Chengdu Wuniu, Jiangsu Sainty and Zhejing Greentown. Guangzhou's new sponsors Geely immediately pulled their funding from the team to distance themselves from the bad publicity. The club went through a tough transitional period until the Sunray Cave Group took over the club in 2004 and started to invest money in hopes of pushing for promotion. When the Guangzhou Pharmaceuticals group took over the club in 2006, they were able to realize the ambition of gaining promotion. The club won the 2007 second division title and entry to the Chinese Super League. In February 2010, Guangzhou was relegated back to the China League One in the fallout of a match-fixing scandal despite having achieved a ninth-place finish in the 2009 season. The match in question was the 19 August 2006 league game against Shanxi Wosen Luhu, which Guangzhou won 5–1 when they were still playing in the China League One. It was discovered by the police that the Guangzhou general manager Yang Xu paid ¥200,000 to the opposing general manager Wang Po to secure a win at home and that Guangzhou's vice presidents Wu Xiaodong and Xie Bin knew about it. With the offending participants sentenced to jail for fraud, the club was put up for sale. On 28 February 2010, Evergrande Real Estate Group took over the club for a fee of ¥100 million. Xu Jiayin, chairman of Evergrande Real Estate Group, said that they would pump more funds into the transfer market. His first act was to sign in Chinese national team striker Gao Lin from Shanghai Shenhua for a reported fee of ¥6 million. Then, he replaced the head coach Peng Weiguo with former Beijing Guoan manager Lee Jang-soo with no indication. In the 2010 summer transfer window, the club signed Sun Xiang, the first Chinese footballer to play in the UEFA Champions League with PSV Eindhoven, and the Chinese national team captain Zheng Zhi on 28 June 2010. On 30 June 2010, Guangzhou confirmed that they had signed Muriqui on a four-year deal from Campeonato Brasileiro Série