A former Everton player sentenced to life in prison: from the Premier to a Chinese prison

Of the Premier League in a Chinese prison for life. An investigation into state corruption in China led to the arrest of the former soccer player Li Tie46 years old, who, according to the journalist based in the Asian country, Mark Dreyer citing local reports, he will be sentenced to life in prison. The former player of Everton He admitted on state television CCTV that he had fixed matches as well as being the star of a corruption episode by paying around 380,000 euros to be named the China Coach. Also sentenced will be, among others, the former president of the Chinese Football Federation, Chen Xuyuanin his case 15 years in prison.

“I’m very sorry. I should have kept my head down and followed the right path. There were some things that were common practices in football at that time,” explained Li, who played 33 games for Everton in 2002- 03 season on loan from the club. Chinese Liaoning, after which he signed for the Toffees until 2006, playing 7 more games. After one and a half years at Sheffield Wednesdey, between July 2006 and January 2008, he returned to China.

“Having ‘success’ in an inappropriate way made me increasingly impatient and eager to have quick results,” Li admitted, adding that “to achieve good performances I influenced the referees, bribed rival players and coaches, sometimes through agreements between some clubs and others. This behavior becomes a habit and eventually there is a slight addiction to these activities .” As coach of Hebei China Fortune and Wuhan Zall, he fixed matches and won promotion from China League One as champions in 2018.

Li Tie retired in 2012 and ended up assisting Marcello Lippi with that country’s national team. After the resignation of the Italian, he was named the new coach. In November 2022, it was announced that Li was under investigation for “serious violations of laws” by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and China’s national anti-corruption agency.