China condemns ex-Prime Minister League star for corruption to 20 years
China condemns ex-Prime Minister League star for corruption to 20 years
A former Chinese Football Star and coach of the men's national team was sentenced to 20 years in prison for corruption, state media reported on Friday.
li tie: The fallen star
li tie, 47 years old, played for the English Premier League Club Everton next to Wayne Rooney in the early 2000s and is the best-known name that fell into China's professional football leagues as part of a comprehensive combination of the widespread corruption.
corruption in Chinese football
Despite the vision of President Xi Jinping to make China a "world football superpower", Chinese professional football was shaped by poor financial decisions, deeply rooted corruption and disappointing achievements. After the disappointing elimination of the Chinese national team in the preliminary round of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the country's anti-corruption authority started a comprehensive examination for bribery and play manipulation in Chinese professional football.
condemnation of li tie
li was the first among about a dozen football officials that were targeted in the campaign against corruption. In March Chen Xuyuan, the former president of the official China Football Association, became Life Langer sentenced . On Friday, Li was convicted of multiple bribes by a court in Wuhan, said the State Radio CCTV.
evidence and confessions
During his trial in March, public prosecutors Li accused more than 50 million Yuan ($ 6.8 million) of bribes between 2019 and 2021, while he worked as a coach of the national team and the national selection. In return, he granted certain players in the selection for the national team and helped to win certain clubs.guilt and remorse
in a documentary broadcast in January about the anti -corruption campaign in the football sector, Li said in Reue that he had "deeply regretted" to have taken the wrong way. "As a player, I despised people the most who played fake games," said Li during the show. But after his appointment as the coach of a club, he realized that it was a short way to improve the ranking of his club. "Success in such an unlawful way made me short -sighted and greedy after quick results," he added.
The background of the conviction
The courts controlled by the China Communist Party have a conviction rate of over 99 percent, and it is not unusual for state broadcasters to radiate confessions before the process in top -class cases.
li tie: an icon of Chinese football
LI is considered one of the best Chinese players in his generation and one of the best -known names in Chinese football. In 2002 he wrote history together with the star defender Sun Jihai by Manchester City by playing the first Chinese in the English Premier League and thus establishing himself as a national sporting table.
career course and return to China
In his debut season in England,Li played 29 games for Everton and belonged to a memorable team with a young Wayne Rooney and the former Nigerian captain Joseph Yobo. This year Li also represented China at the FIFA World Cup in South Korea and Japan, the first and only participation of the men's national team in the Quadriennal tournament.
After his successful first season, Li signed a three -year contract with Everton, but his time in the first team was shaped by a number of injuries. In 2008 he returned to China after his short but unsuccessful time was over with Sheffield United. Many Chinese football fans had hoped that Li, once the pride of Chinese football, could lead the men's national team to the World Cup when he was appointed head coach in January 2020. But only two years later due to a massive setback of the fans about the disappointing performance of the team in the qualification games for the World Cup.
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