Li Tie, 47 years old, who played in the English Premier League for Everton and Sheffield United, admitted all his mistakes during the trial on December 13 in China.
Li Tie’s career was officially ruined
At the end of 2022, Li Tie was officially investigated for a series of crimes including corruption, bribery and match-fixing, while working at clubs Hebei China Fortune (2015 to 2016) and Wuhan Zall (2017 – 2019). , on the Chinese team (from 2019 to 2021).
This former player was accused of accepting bribes of 6.8 million USD from 2019 to 2021, while serving as coach of the Chinese team, to favor bringing some players to the national team. Li Tie was also accused of fixing scores at two clubs he worked for while playing in the Chinese National Championship, and of bribing about 412,800 USD to become coach of the Chinese team.
In the third qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup, Li Tie led the Chinese team against the Vietnamese team with a 3-2 win on October 7, 2021, before being fired and investigated for corruption charges. After that, interim coach Li Xiaopeng replaced and led the Chinese team, which lost to the Vietnamese team with a score of 1-3 in the second leg at My Dinh Stadium on February 1, 2022.
Li Tie’s crimes took place between 2015 and December 2021, when this famous former player officially left his position as coach of the Chinese team. Li Tie himself later admitted all his actions, including using his authority to select some players for the team and fix scores, in return for receiving huge amounts of money.
“I’m very sorry. I should have kept a clear mind and followed the right path. There were some things that at that time were common practice in football,” Li Tie admitted his guilt. In early 2024, former President of the Chinese Football Association (CFA), Mr. Chen Xuyuan, was also sentenced to life in prison for accepting a bribe of 11 million USD.
Li Tie was once a symbol of Chinese football, as one of the country’s seven players to have played in the English Premier League. Li Tie has 92 caps for the team, scoring 6 goals. But now his career is officially ruined because of his mistakes while working as a coach.
