A Chinese court has sentenced former Everton midfielder Li Tie to 20 years in prison for giving and receiving bribes as Beijing intensifies its crackdown on corruption.
Li, one of his country’s most prominent footballers to play in the English Premier League and former national team coach, was placed under investigation in 2022 for "serious violations of the law".
Authorities at the time refused to provide further information.
Li was found guilty of taking 110m yuan (£11.9m) in bribes between 2015 and 2021, state media CCTV reported on Friday. A photo published by state media showed Li in the dock wearing a black hooded sweater and flanked by police officers.
The court in Xianning was told Li accepted over 50m yuan (£5.4m) in bribes from 2019 to 2011 when he was coach of China’s national team.
In exchange for the bribes, Li allegedly chose certain players for the national team and helped clubs win competitions and sign players.
Li, 47, appeared in a court in Hubei province in March and pleaded guilty to his involvement in bribery and match-fixing.
“I'm very sorry. I should have kept my head to the ground and followed the right path," Li said in a documentary aired by CCTV in January. "There were certain things that at the time were common practices in football.”
The former China captain said he had arranged nearly £330,954 in bribes to secure the position of head coach and took part in match-fixing during his tenure as a club coach.
Chinese authorities have been accused in the past of coercing "confession videos" out of prisoners to intimidate others, a move condemned by rights activists.
The Chinese government under Xi Jinping has launched a major crackdown to weed out corruption in Chinese football that has seen over a dozen officials of the Chinese Football Association investigated or charged.
Li is one of the biggest names in Chinese football and was part of the only men’s team from the country to make it to the World Cup. China played at the 2002 tournament in Japan and South Korea under Serbian coach Bora Milutinovic.
China has struggled since in international competitions and is currently ranked 90th by Fifa. It failed to qualify for the last World Cup in Qatar.
Former Chinese Football Association boss Chen Xuyuan was sentenced to life in prison in March for taking bribes of over 81m yuan (£8.7m).
In September, the association banned for life 38 players and five club officials after a two-year investigation into match-fixing and gambling. The investigation found that 120 matches had been fixed with 41 football clubs involved.
China’s president, a self-proclaimed football fan, has said he dreams of China one day hosting and winning the World Cup.
