New Delhi: Former Chinese men’s football team coach Li Tie has received a sentence of 20 years in prison on Friday, according to state media reports official media after a protracted trial on corruption accusations. The state news agency Xinhua confirmed Li “was sentenced to a fixed-term imprisonment of 20 years at an initial trial” but didn’t reveal further details. Since assuming office more than ten years ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping has launched a broad campaign to combat official corruption.
The sport industry became focus of anti-grafting authorities towards the end of 2022 following the same a series of convictions for former football administrators were revealed this week by the authorities. Earlier this year, Li even entered a guilty plea for taking more than $10 million in bribery. Li coached the national team from January 2020 to December 2021 and earlier this year admitted that he accepted more than $10 million bribery.
The 47-year-old played as a midfielder for Premier League team Everton and is among China’s most recognizable former football players. Li has represented China in around 100 games. He appeared in a January documentary alleging pervasive corruption in Chinese football that was shown by state broadcaster CCTV.
Li Tie, the former head coach of China’s national soccer team, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison on an extensive list of bribery charges.
The 2022 investigation into Li kicked off a broad campaign against corruption in Chinese sports, and subsequently opened… pic.twitter.com/f2fIzlaZ4M
— Caixin Global (@caixin) December 13, 2024
CCTV occasionally broadcasts confessions made by criminal defendants prior to their court appearances, a practice that is strongly denounced by human rights organizations. Li claimed on the program that while he was a club coach in the Chinese Super League, he helped manipulate games and had arranged bribes totaling about $421,000 to secure the head coach position.
He revealed during the show, “I’m very sorry. I should have kept my head to the ground and followed the right path. There were certain things that at the time were common practices in football.”
Series of convictions
A number of corruption convictions have been revealed by Chinese authorities this week and according to official state media, the former vice chairman of the national sport administration is also scheduled to be sentenced on Friday.
The former secretary general of the Chinese Football Association (CFA), Liu Yi was also fined fined 3.6 million yuan ($495,000) and sentenced to 11 years in prison on Wednesday for accepting bribes. The former chief of the CFA’s referees management office Tan Hai was also sentenced to six and a half years in prison and fined 200,000 yuan ( $27494.43) for the same offense.
Additionally, on Tuesday Qi Jun, the former head of strategic planning at the CFA, was fined 600,000 yuan and given a seven-year sentenc. The former head of the CFA, Chen Xuyuan was sentenced to life imprisonment in March for taking bribes.
While supporters of Xi’s anti-corruption campaign claim the initiative fosters clean governance, some claim it also allows him to eliminate political opponents. Although Xi claims to be a football lover and hopes China will host and win the World Cup someday, the men’s national team has long fallen short of expectations.
China are currently ranked 90th in the world by FIFA, one spot higher than the little Caribbean island of Curacao.
Amidst sweeping anti-corruption measures in Chinese football, former Premier League player and ex-China coach Li Tie receives a 20-year prison sentence for corruption. Football Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
