Li Tie, the former coach of the Chinese national football team and ex-Everton player, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for bribery.
According to media reports, the 47-year-old was convicted of multiple offences related to the exchange of bribes, totalling 120 million yuan ($16.5 million) between 2015 and 2021, including his two-year tenure as national coach.
The court in Hubei province delivered its verdict on Friday as Li had already confessed to arranging nearly $421,000 in bribes to secure his coaching position and to influence matches in the Chinese Super League.
His confession was first revealed in a January documentary broadcast by CCTV, which is known for airing confessions before court trials, a practice that has faced widespread criticism from human rights groups.
Li’s conviction is the most high-profile among those ensnared in China’s ongoing anti-corruption campaign within the football sector.
The crackdown has targeted match-fixing and bribery within the Chinese Football Association (CFA), with several football officials sentenced to prison this year includind the former CFA president Chen Xuyuan who was handed a life sentence for accepting bribes worth over 81 million yuan ($11 million).
This year, the CFA also issued life bans to 38 players and five club officials involved in match-fixing and gambling where an investigation revealed that 120 matches had been manipulated, implicating 41 football clubs.
The crackdown forms part of President Xi Jinping’s broader anti-corruption drive, aiming to clean up Chinese football. Xi, who has expressed a desire to see China host and win the World Cup, has faced challenges in improving the national team, which currently ranks 90th in the world, just above Curacao.
The Chinese football system has struggled with corruption and match-fixing since the late 1990s, with fans often blaming these issues for the national team's poor performances on the global stage.
