Former Chinese football star Li Tie went to trial in the giant Asian country on charges of paying and receiving bribes. According to his own confession in a documentary broadcast on television, he paid about $420,000 to secure the position of coach of his country’s national team and participated in match-fixing in the local league.
Li was a midfielder for Everton and played 34 matches in the English Premier League between 2002 and 2006. He also made more than 90 appearances for China, including the 4-0 defeat against Brazil in the 2002 World Cup, and served as coach of the national team from January 2020 to December 2021.
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After showing good potential as a youth player, he was sent to train for five years in Brazil as part of a program sponsored by a company and organized with the Chinese Football Association. The aim of this initiative was to enhance the development of the world’s most famous sport in what is now the second most populous country on the planet behind India.
WORLD CUP FEVER
Lots of World Cup anniversaries at the moment, so we're going to make the most of it.
First up, it's 8th June 2002. Jeju Stadium in Seogwipo. Brazil v China.
Roberto Carlos testing the aerodynamic properties of an adidas Fevernova.pic.twitter.com/xuCuNU68h6
— MUNDIAL (@MundialMag) June 8, 2022
The trial against the former star is taking place in the central province of Hubei. In a documentary aired in January, he admitted to paying bribes and apologized for what happened: “I should have kept my feet on the ground and followed the right path.”
This week, amid an anti-corruption campaign, the former president of the Chinese Football Association, Chen Xuyuan, was sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of accepting bribes valued at around $11 million.
