Former Everton and China international Li Tie has been sentenced to 20 years in jail for bribery.
Li made 34 Premier League appearances for Everton between 2002 and 2006.
Li, who served as head coach of the Chinese national team between 2019 and 2021, confessed earlier this year to fixing matches, accepting bribes, and offering bribes to land the job, (as per talkSPORT).
The 47-year-old pleaded guilty in March to taking over $16million in bribes, starting from his time as assistant coach at the Hebei China Fortune Club in 2015, until 2021, when he quit as China’s coach.
In exchange for the bribes, Li would select certain individuals for the national team and help football clubs win competitions.
His imprisonment comes as part of Chinese president Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption crackdown.
Three former officials from the Chinese Football Association (CFA) have also handed jail sentences for bribery earlier this week.
Li, confessed to his offences in an anti-corruption documentary aired Chinese state broadcaster CCTV earlier this year.
“I’m very sorry. I should have kept my head to the ground and followed the right path,” he said.
“There were certain things that at the time were common practices in football.”
He had made 92 appearances for China and played at the Korea/Japan 2002 World Cup, his country’s only appearance in the tournament so far.
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