Former China football coach Li Tie says paid bribes for job in TV confession

BEIJING: The former Chinese national football team coach has made a televised confession in which he admitted to paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to secure the top job, as well as involvement in match-fixing.

Chinese football has been in the grip of a major anti-corruption campaign that has seen numerous leading figures investigated or charged.

Li Tie, a former Everton midfielder who served as the national team's head coach, was placed under investigation in 2022, accused by authorities of "serious violations of the law".

No detailed information on the case has been available until his confession on Tuesday (Jan 9) night, part of an anti-graft documentary aired on state broadcaster CCTV.

CCTV regularly airs confessions by criminal suspects, including former officials, before they appear in court - a practice widely condemned by rights groups.

In the programme, Li said he had arranged nearly US$421,000 in bribes to secure the head coach position - and to have helped fix matches when he was a club coach.

"I'm very sorry. I should have kept my head to the ground and followed the right path," the 46-year-old said.

"There were certain things that at the time were common practices in football," he added.

When he took the national coach job in January 2020, Li declared he had achieved one of his "biggest dreams".

But Tuesday's documentary painted a less wholesome picture.

It said Li had asked Wuhan Zall Football Club - where he then worked as coach - to intervene on his behalf with the Chinese Football Association (CFA), promising to return the favour.

The club paid two million yuan (US$281,000) in bribes to Chen Xuyuan, then president of the CFA and now also subject to a corruption investigation.

Li also said he gave one