End of game for Li Tie, the former coach of the Chinese team from January 2020 to December 2021. The fall of the man who was also one of the best-known Chinese players abroad reveals the extent of corruption in the world of football in China, against which the authorities are waging a fierce campaign of repression.
Public television CCTV broadcast a photo of the former Premier League player standing in the dock of a court in Hubei province (center), wearing a black hooded sweater and flanked by two police officers. The court announced that it had sentenced Li to “a term of 20 years in prison”.
Since coming to power in 2012, Chinese President Xi Jinping has led a vast anti-corruption campaign in many areas. The authorities began attacking the world of sport at the end of 2022, and have already announced this week a series of other heavy sentences against former officials in the world of football.
6.7 million euros in bribes
Li Tie, 47, was also a midfielder for Everton and Sheffield in the English Premier League. As a player, he was capped nearly a hundred times for the national team, before pursuing a coaching career with Chinese clubs. But according to CCTV, he pocketed nearly 51 million yuan (6.7 million euros) in bribes from players to select them for the national team or help them sign contracts with clubs.
According to CCTV, Li also paid money to football club bosses to support his candidacy for the position of national coach and, when he was a coach of teams in the league, millions of yuan hidden commissions to transfer players or fix matches.
In January, he participated in a documentary on widespread corruption in Chinese football on the public channel CCTV, which sometimes broadcasts confessions from suspects before their appearance in court, a practice decried by human rights defenders.
Televised confessions
Li Tie admitted on camera to having helped fix several matches in order to allow the Chinese second division teams he managed to reach the elite. He also admitted to having bought his position as coach. “I’m really sorry. I should have kept a cool head and followed the right path,” Li said. “At the time, some things were standard practice in football. »
Several other former Chinese sports officials were heavily sentenced this week. And according to state media, the verdict against a former number two in the national sports administration is also expected this Friday. On Wednesday, the former general secretary of the Chinese Football Federation, Liu Yi, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for corruption. On the same day, the former head of the Federation’s referee management office, Tan Hai, was sentenced to six and a half years in prison for the same offense.
Xi Jinping hopes China can one day win the World Cup
The day before, a seven-year prison sentence was handed down to Qi Jun, former head of strategic planning for the Federation. As for the former president of the Federation, Chen Xuyuan, he has been serving a life prison sentence since March, also for accepting bribes.
Xi Jinping’s supporters applaud the severity with which corruption is fought in China, but his critics say this crackdown also serves to purge his political rivals.
Self-proclaimed football fan, Xi Jinping wishes that China could one day host and win the World Cup. But the men’s national team, often mocked by the Chinese, remains stuck in 90th place in the Fifa rankings, more or less at the same level as 10 years ago and just ahead of the small island of Curaçao, in the Caribbean.