Former Everton FC 46 years-old player has sadly been sentenced to life in prison – What happened revealed

Li Tie used to play for both Everton and Sheffield United. After moving back to China, he became a teacher and managed the country’s national team.

Reports from Li Tie’s home country of China say that he has been sentenced to life in jail.

Li, 46, got into a lot of trouble when he openly admitted that he took 3 million yuan (£330,000) in bribes to manage China’s national team. As part of his confession shown on state TV, CCTV, the former defensive midfielder also said he was involved in a match-fixing scam that helped his club teams get promoted.

Li was one of the best Chinese players of his age and has been capped 92 times by his country. During the 2002–03 season, he played 33 games for Everton while on loan from his hometown team Liaoning. Then, the Toffees paid £1.2 million to sign him permanently. He played in seven games that season before hurting his leg while on international duty in February 2004.

Li got hurt a lot because of this, and even though he signed a two-year deal with Sheffield United in 2006, he only played one game for the Blades. He went back to China in 2008 and stopped playing three years later. Li then started a job as a coach, which has since been ruined.

The 46-year-old man has claimed that he fixed games while he was the head coach of both Hebei China Fortune and Wuhan Zall. They moved up from China League One as winners in 2018 and are based in Wuhan.

On Friday, news from China said that Li had been given a life sentence in jail and that Chen Xuyuan, who used to be the head of the Chinese Football Association, would serve 15 years. Also, Vice President Du Zhaocai is said to have been given a 13-year term.

In a live TV interview last month, Li said, “I’m very sorry.” I should have kept my eyes on the ground and gone in the right direction.At that time, there were some things that were normal in sports. By getting “success” in such a bad way, it made me more restless and eager for results to happen quickly.

“To get good results, I bribed opposing players and coaches and tried to sway referees. Sometimes I did this by having clubs do business with each other.” This behavior turns into a habit, and after a while, there is even a little dependence on it.

When Marcello Lippi, the Italian manager, quit in 2019, Li was put in charge of the Chinese national team, first as a temporary manager and then forever. After two years in charge, Li Xiaopeng, a friend from the 2002 World Cup, took over.

In November 2022, it was revealed that Li, a former Everton player, was being investigated by China’s anti-corruption agency and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) for “serious violation of laws.”