Former Chinese soccer star and men's national team coach Li Tie has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for corruption, Chinese state media reported Friday.
Li Tie, 47, recognized as one of the best Chinese footballers of his generation, played for Everton in the Premier League in the early 2000s alongside football stars such as Wayne Rooney, becoming an international household name . But his coaching career was tarnished by allegations of bribery and match-fixing.
Li was arrested as part of a wide-ranging investigation into corruption in Chinese professional football, launched after the national team's disappointing elimination in the first stage of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
In March, during his trial in Wuhan, prosecutors accused him of taking more than 50 million yuan (about $6.8 million) in bribes between 2019 and 2021, when he was the national team coach. Li was also accused of match-fixing at clubs he managed between 2015 and 2019.
During a documentary broadcast by Chinese state television in January, before the trial began, Li expressed remorse for his actions, admitting he had chosen the wrong path. "When I was a player, I despised match-fixing," he said. "But as a coach, I saw it as a shortcut to success."
Li Tie was considered an icon of Chinese football, being one of the first Chinese players to play in the Premier League and representing China at the 2002 World Cup. His sentence is another blow to leader Xi Jinping's vision of turning China into a "soccer superpowers." (A2 Televizion)
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