The former head coach of Chinese men's national football team, Li Tie, has been sentenced to 20 years in jail, state media reported on Friday.

It followed a lengthy trial during which Li was accused of corruption and bribery.

The former Everton midfielder Li "was sentenced to a fixed-term imprisonment of 20 years at an initial trial," state news agency Xinhua said, without offering any further details.

Chinese anti-graft authorities took aim at the sport industry over the past couple of years and have announced a string of convictions for former football administrators this week.

What did Li plead guilty to?

Li, who coached the Chinese men's team between January 2020 and December 2021, pled guilty to accepting over $10 million (€9.56 million) in bribes earlier in 2024.

He appeared in a documentary aired by state broadcaster CCTV in January about widespread corruption in Chinese football.

During the program, Li claimed that he participated in match-fixing as he realized it could improve his chance of winning and could advance his career. 

"Once you achieve success in the wrong way, you become more and more desperate for more success," he said. "This way then becomes a habit, and later on you even develop some reliance on it."

"I'm very sorry. I should have kept my head to the ground and followed the right path," he also said during the show. "There were certain things that at the time were common practices in football."

Who else has been sentenced?

State media have announced a number of corruption convictions during the week.

On Wednesday, the former secretary general of the Chinese Football Association (CFA), Liu Yi, was sentenced to 11 years in jail and fined 3.6 million yuan (€473,000) for taking bribes.

On Thursday, alongside Li, the former head of the CFA's referees management office, Tan Hai, was given a six-and-a-half year sentence.

In March, former CFA chief Chen Xuyuan was jailed for life for accepting bribes.

km/sri (AFP, Reuters)