Former China coach Li Tie has lost his appeal against a 20-year prison sentence handed down last year for giving and receiving bribes, a Chinese court announced on Wednesday.
Li, one of his country's best known players from his time as a midfielder in the English Premier League for Everton and the national team at the 2002 World Cup, was coach of China from late 2019 until resigning two years later.
A Xianning court alleged that from 2015, when he was an assistant coach at the Hebei China Fortune club, until 2021, when he quit as China coach Li gave and received bribes totalling 120 million yuan ($16.51 million).
In exchange for bribes, the court had said, Li would select certain individuals for the national team as well as help clubs win competitions and sign players.
The 47-year-old had submitted a guilty plea and was sentenced on December 13, with Hubei Provincial Higher People's Court upholding the sentence on Wednesday.
China has been seeking to stamp out corruption and match-fixing in football for decades. In 2024, Li was just one of a number of high-profile figures in the sport to be prosecuted in an anti-corruption sweep.
Former China Football Association (CFA) president Chen Xuyuan was jailed for life for accepting bribes while former CFA vice-president Yu Hongchen, ex-deputy secretary general Chen Yongliang, and former Super League general manager Dong Zheng were also sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
Information from Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this story
