China, on Friday, jailed a former Premier League star and men’s national coach, Li Tie, for 20 years for bribery, snaring one of the country’s greatest football figures in a sweeping government crackdown on corruption in sports.
President Xi Jinping has waged an unrelenting campaign against deep-seated official corruption since coming to power over a decade ago, The PUNCH reports.
Anti-graft authorities took aim at the sports industry in 2022 and have announced a string of convictions for former football administrators this week.
In the highest-profile case to date, a court in central Hubei province said Friday that Li had been sentenced to “fixed-term imprisonment of 20 years” after being found guilty of a string of offences relating to giving and receiving bribes.
But state broadcaster CCTV said he used his status as China coach to extract nearly 51 million yuan ($7 million) in bribes in return for selecting players for the national team or helping them sign for clubs.
Li also “asked others to help him” become the national coach in 2019 and handed the unnamed people one million yuan the following year, according to CCTV.
