On the pitch, the club would take over Shanghai Cable 02, a youth football team set up by Xu Genbao while also bringing in a new manager in Wu Jingui, who built a new squad predominantly using many from the Shanghai Cable squad and despite struggling in his debut season, he was able to win the league title in 2003. Critics would dispute the legitimacy of the title win after it was discovered in 2011 that the referee Lu Jun was bribed by the head of the CFA's referee arrangements, Zhang Jianqiang, to be biased towards Shenhua in a vital match against Shanghai International in a game that Shenhua won 4–1. Lu Jun and Zhang Jianqiang were both officially charged with match-fixing, while Shenhua's general manager Lou Shifang was discovered to be the person who orchestrated the bribes. Initially despite this indiscretion, the club was spared any disciplinary action. The reason provided by the CFA at the time for the leniency was that they would be punishing the individuals who put the game in disrepute and not the club; because Lou Shifang was Shenhua's offending participant and had left the club several years before the allegations were confirmed, it would have been harsh to punish the club retrospectively. On 18 February 2013 The CFA would decide to change its mind on Shenhua and retrospectively decided to punish the club by revoking its 2003 league title, fining the club with 1 million Yuan and giving a 6-point deduction at the beginning of the 2013 Chinese Super League season after it was discovered that they also fixed another game against Shaanxi Guoli en route to winning the 2003 league title.