The government caught one of China’s finest football players in a broad crackdown on corruption in sport on Friday when they sentenced former Premier League player and men’s national coach Li Tie to 20 years in prison for bribery. Since he took office more than ten years ago, President Xi Jinping has been relentless in his fight against pervasive government corruption. Anti-graft authorities targeted the sport business in 2022, and this week they announced a number of convictions for former football officials.
A court in central Hubei province said Friday that they sentenced Li to “fixed-term imprisonment of 20 years” after finding him guilty of a number of offenses related to providing and accepting bribes, the most high-profile case to date.
The 47-year-old, who played as a midfielder for Everton in the English Premier League and amassed almost 100 international caps, is one of China’s most well-known football figures. He was the coach of the national team from January 2020 until December 2021.
However, according to official broadcaster CCTV, he took use of his position as coach of China league to demand payments totaling about 51 million yuan ($7 million) in exchange for choosing players for the national team or assisting them in signing with clubs.
According to the broadcaster, Li also conspired with club executives to distribute bribes during his time at the now-defunct Chinese Super League (CSL) team Wuhan Zall in an attempt to land the position with the national squad.
It also detailed other allegations that, dating back to 2015, Li and his former teams had paid bribes totaling millions of dollars to complete player transfers and rig games.
Confession on television
China’s courts have a nearly 100% conviction rate in criminal cases, and the ruling Communist Party has strict control over the country’s legal system.
Earlier this year, Li entered a guilty plea to collecting more than $10 million in bribes, which seemed to guarantee his conviction.
In January, he also appeared in a CCTV program exposing the pervasive corruption in Chinese football.
According to Li, he helped rig CSL games and negotiated bribes totaling around $421,000 to get the head coach post.
“I really apologize. During the performance, Li stated, “I should have kept my head down and followed the correct path.”
“There were certain things that at the time were common practices in football.”
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