Former Everton midfielder facing prison sentence

There is confusion over the fate of Li Tie and how long he could face behind bars after a Chinese-based journalist claimed the former Everton midfielder had been sentenced to life in prison.

Author Mark Dreyer, who has a website called chinasportsinsider.com and lives in Beijing, tweeted: “Not yet officially announced, but reports coming out saying former Everton and China player Li Tie has been sentenced to life in prison for his role in China’s latest corruption investigation. 15 years for CFA president Chen Xuyuan and 13 years for top sports official Du Zhaocai.”

On February 20, The Athletic reported that Li is under investigation for “serious violation of laws” relating to corruption and last month made a televised confession as part of a match-fixing probe and that people who have been convicted of corruption in China have been handed down long prison sentences.

In January, Grand Old Team reported that the 46-year-old was awaiting trial in Hubei province having admitted he fixed matches for lower-level clubs and over the past decade bribed his way up to coaching the China national team, a post he took in 2019 when replacing Marcello Lippi who steered Italy to glory in the 2006 World Cup final, with the confession coming in a state-backed documentary that revealed “all-round” corruption in football.

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Li admitted to paying a total of 3 million yuan (£331,000) in 2019 in order to get the head coach role, of which 2 million yuan went to the then Chinese Football Association (CFA) president Chen Xuyuan and the rest to CFA’s then