The former coach of the Chinese men's national football team has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for corruption, state media reported.
Li Tie, who also played for Everton in the English Premier League, admitted earlier this year to fixing matches, taking bribes and offering bribes to get the top coaching job .
The case shows how President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption crackdown has damaged sports, the banking sector and the military.
Earlier this week, three former Chinese Football Association (CFA) officials were also sentenced to prison terms for corruption. More than a dozen coaches and players were investigated.
Li, who served as head coach of the national team from January 2020 to December 2021, pleaded guilty in March to accepting more than $10 million in bribes.
The 47-year-old was featured in an anti-corruption documentary broadcast by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV earlier this year, in which he apologized for his offenses.
“I'm really sorry. I should have kept my head down and followed the right path,” he said. “There were certain things that, at the time, were standard practice in football.”
Li had made 92 appearances for China and participated in the 2002 World Cup.
His former boss, former CFA chairman Chen Xuyuan, was sentenced to life in prison earlier this year for accepting bribes worth $11 million.
Xi has previously expressed his ambition to make China a major football power.
In 2011, he spoke of his “three wishes” for Chinese football: to qualify for the World Cup again, host the tournament and one day win the trophy.
But the recent detentions and convictions of major football figures – some of whom were officials responsible for leading the football revolution – have dealt a further setback to the country's football ambitions.
