China: Former national team head coach jailed 20 years for bribery and corruption

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

The former coach of the Chinese national men’s football team has been sentenced to 20 years in jail for bribery and corruption.

Li Tie, 47, had confessed earlier this year to fixing matches, accepting bribes, and offering bribes to get the top coaching job in the country.

Three former officials from the Chinese Football Association (CFA) were also handed jail sentences for bribery. Many coaches and players have been investigated recently for the same offence.

Tie was the national team’s head coach from January 2020 to December 2021 and pleaded guilty in March to taking over $16 million in bribes.

The court said that this happened from 2015, when he was an assistant coach at the Hebei China Fortune Club, until 2021 when he quit as the national coach.

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

Tie was featured in an anti-corruption documentary aired by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV early this year, where he apologised for his unacceptable offences.

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

The disgraced Li made 92 appearances for China and was part of the squad that played at the 2002 World Cup – the country’s only appearance in the finals so far.

His former boss, the former CFA president Chen Xuyuan, was sentenced to life in prison earlier this year for accepting bribes worth $11 million.

Xi had in the past voiced his ambition to turn China into a major football power.

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

But the recent detentions and convictions of major football figures – some of whom were officials tasked to lead the football revolution – have dealt another setback to the country’s football ambitions.

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

That was also led by Xi, who was then China’s vice-president.