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CHINA — A former Premier League star and men's national coach,Li Tie has bagged 20-year jail term for corruption in China, signaling a sweeping corruption in sports.
China President, Xi Jinping has waged an unrelenting campaign against deep-seated official corruption since coming to power over a decade ago.
Recall that anti-graft authorities took aim at the sports industry in 2022 and have announced a string of convictions for former football administrators this week.
Speaking on the case, a court in central Hubei province said Friday that Li had been sentenced to “fixed-term imprisonment of 20 years” after being found guilty of a string of offences relating to giving and receiving bribes.
The 47-year-old is one of China’s biggest football names, serving as national team coach from January 2020 to December 2021, after racking up nearly 100 international caps and playing as a midfielder for English Premier League side Everton.
According to state broadcaster CCTV, Tie used his status as China coach to extract nearly 51 million yuan ($7 million) in bribes in return for selecting players for the national team or helping them sign for clubs.
He however “asked others to help him” become the national coach in 2019 and handed the unnamed people one million yuan the following year, according to CCTV.
During his tenure at now-defunct Chinese Super League (CSL) side Wuhan Zall, Tie also colluded with club chiefs to hand out bribes in an effort to secure the national team job, the broadcaster said.
It also listed other accusations that Tie and his previous clubs had paid the equivalent of millions of dollars in bribes to seal player transfers and fix match results stretching back to 2015.
China’s legal system is tightly controlled by the ruling Communist Party and courts have a near-100 per cent conviction rate in criminal cases.
Tie’s conviction seemed certain after he pleaded guilty earlier this year to accepting over $10 million in bribes.
He was also featured in a documentary aired by CCTV in January about widespread corruption in Chinese football.
