Li Tie: Chinese football legend and ex-Everton player jailed 20 years for corruption

SINGAPORE: Former Chinese national football team coach Li Tie has received a 20-year prison sentence for bribery, state media reported on Friday (Dec 13).

Li, 47, was previously a major football star who also played for clubs like Everton and Sheffield United in the English Premier League.

He was sentenced to a “20-year prison term in an initial trial”, Chinese news agencies said, after pleading guilty earlier this year to accepting more than 110 million yuan (US$15.1 million) in bribes. 

Li began his career at the age of 15, playing for Liaoning FC’s youth academy before going on to play nearly 100 games for China. 

At the height of his career, he secured lucrative transfer deals to UK clubs like Everton Football Club and Sheffield United Football Club before transitioning to coaching China’s national team from January 2020 to December 2021. 

In a lengthy corruption trial, prosecutors in Hubei province said Li had accepted more than 50 million yuan (US$6.8 million) in bribes from 2019 to 2021, by taking advantage of his position as coach.

He is the latest figure to fall amid President Xi Jinping’s far-reaching anti-corruption campaign, which has taken aim at the country’s sports industry. 

Xi, a self-proclaimed football fan, has been vocal about his ambitions to turn China into a major football power and win the World Cup one day – but the country's football dream has been fading, fans say, with national teams failing to impress. 

More than a dozen Chinese football coaches and players have come under investigation. 

This week, three other former officials from the Chinese Football Association (CFA) were also handed jail sentences for bribery.

Former CFA secretary general Liu Yi was handed an 11-year sentence and fined 3.6 million