China sends former football head coach to jail on bribery charges

The former coach of the Chinese national men’s football team has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for bribery, state media reported.

Lee Tie, who also plays for Everton in the English Premier League, admitted earlier this year to match-fixing, taking bribes and offering bribes to get a top coaching job.

The case shows how President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption crackdown has affected sports, banking and the military.

Earlier this week, three former officials of the Chinese Football Association (CFA) were also sentenced to prison for bribery. More than a dozen coaches and players have been investigated.

Li, who was the national team head coach from January 2020 to December 2021, pleaded guilty in March to accepting more than $16 million in bribes.

The court said this happened from 2015, when he was an assistant coach at Hebei China Fortune Club, to 2021, when he left the post of national coach.

In exchange for bribes, Lee would select certain individuals for the national team and help football clubs win competitions.

The 47-year-old was featured in an anti-corruption documentary broadcast by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV earlier this year, in which he apologized for his crimes.

He said, “I am very sorry. I should have kept my head on the ground and followed the right path.” “There were certain things that were common practices in football at that time.”

Li made 92 appearances for China and played at the 2002 World Cup – the nation’s only appearance in the finals to date.

His former boss, Former CFA President Chen Zuyuanwas sentenced to life imprisonment earlier this year for accepting bribes worth $11 million.

Xi has in the past expressed his ambition to turn China into a major football power.

In 2011, he talked about his “three wishes” for Chinese football: to qualify for the World Cup again, host the tournament, and win the trophy one day.

But the recent detention and sentencing of key football figures – some of whom were officials appointed to lead the football revolution – has dealt a further blow to the country’s football ambitions.

This latest anti-corruption campaign is reminiscent of an earlier crackdown in Chinese football in 2010, when several officials, national team players and referees were jailed for corruption.

It was also led by Xi, who was the Vice President of China at that time.

Rowan Simmons, who wrote the book Bamboo Goalposts on his long-term efforts to develop grassroots football in China, told BBC China earlier this year: “In many ways, (the current campaign) looks exactly like As it was 10 years ago with a different set of characters.

“How is this different? There’s a lot more money involved.”

Additional reporting by Zhijie Shao in Hong Kong