Former Premier League Player, Li Tie Sentenced To 20 Years In Prison For Corruption

Former Premier League player and former China national football team coach, Li Tie, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for bribery.

Li Tie’s conviction on Friday is part of China’s broader anti-corruption efforts targeting the sports industry.

Since President Xi Jinping took power more than a decade ago, he has led an ongoing campaign against corruption.

In 2022, anti-corruption authorities focused on the sports sector, leading to multiple convictions this week, including Li’s high-profile case.

Li, who coached the national team from January 2020 to December 2021 and previously played as a midfielder for Everton in the English Premier League, was found guilty of giving and receiving bribes.

The 47-year-old football star, who earned nearly 100 caps for China, was accused of accepting nearly 51 million yuan ($7 million) in bribes in exchange for selecting players for the national team and assisting with player transfers to clubs.

Li’s legal troubles also involved accusations that he paid bribes to secure his coaching job in 2019, giving one million yuan to people who helped him land the position.

During his time coaching the now-defunct Wuhan Zall in the Chinese Super League, Li reportedly worked with club officials to offer bribes in exchange for his appointment as the national team coach.

CCTV, China’s state broadcaster, reported that Li and his previous clubs were involved in multiple bribery schemes, including paying millions of dollars to secure player transfers and fix match results, dating back to 2015.

A photo of Li at his trial showed him wearing a black hooded sweater, surrounded by two police officers. In China’s legal system, which is heavily controlled by the Communist Party, convictions are nearly guaranteed.

Li Tie’s fate seemed certain after he admitted earlier this year to accepting over $10 million in bribes and appeared in a CCTV documentary about corruption in Chinese football.

In the documentary, Li confessed to arranging $421,000 in bribes to secure his coaching role and to his involvement in match-fixing.

He expressed regret, saying, “I’m very sorry. I should have kept my head to the ground and followed the right path,” and explained that such practices were common in football at the time.

Li Tie’s case is part of a wave of corruption convictions in Chinese football.

Earlier this week, Liu Yi, former secretary-general of the Chinese Football Association (CFA), was sentenced to 11 years in prison for bribery, while Tan Hai, the former head of the CFA’s referees office, received a six-and-a-half-year sentence. Qi Jun, the ex-chief of strategic planning at the CFA, was sentenced to seven years in prison.

In March, former CFA president Chen Xuyuan was sentenced to life in prison for accepting bribes.

While supporters of Xi’s anti-corruption campaign argue that it promotes clean governance, critics say it may be used to eliminate political rivals.

As a self-proclaimed football fan, Xi has set ambitious goals for Chinese football, hoping to eventually host and win the World Cup.

However, the national men’s team has consistently underperformed, currently ranked 90th in the world, just above Curacao.

Meanwhile, Ecuadorian midfielder Marco Angulo has tragically passed away at 22, a month after suffering severe injuries in a car crash.