China News Service, Beijing, March 28, 2024. On March 28, 2024, the Intermediate People's Court of Xianning City, Hubei Province held a first-instance public hearing to hear that Li Tie, the former head coach of the Chinese National Men's Football Team, accepted bribes, offered bribes, offered bribes by units, and accepted bribes by non-state staff. A case of bribery of non-state personnel.
Image source: Xianning Intermediate People’s Court WeChat official account
The Xianning Municipal People's Procuratorate alleged that from 2019 to 2021, the defendant Li Tie used his position as the head coach of the Chinese National Men's Football Selection Team (hereinafter referred to as the Men's National Football Selection Team) and the head coach of the Chinese National Men's Football Team (hereinafter referred to as the Men's National Football Team). The convenience of the coaching position or the convenient conditions formed by the authority and status provided help to relevant units and individuals in matters such as players being selected for the national team, winning games, signing with clubs, etc., and illegally accepted a total of more than 50.89 million yuan in RMB from others. In 2019, in order to be elected as the head coach of the men's national football team, Li Tie asked others to provide help, and later gave others RMB 1 million in 2020. In 2019, during his tenure at Wuhan Zall Professional Football Club Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Zall Club), in order to seek benefits such as being elected as the head coach of the men's national football selection team and increasing the influence of Zall Club, he reached an agreement with the person in charge of the club. , please ask others to help, and the club will give others RMB 2 million. From 2017 to 2019, Li Tie took advantage of his position as the general manager and head coach of Zall Club to provide assistance to Hebei China Fortune Football Club Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Huaxia Club) on player transfers, winning games and other matters. He has received a total of 26.75 million yuan in RMB from China Club. From 2015 to 2019, when Li Tie served at Huaxia Club and Zall Club, in order to win the game or obtain favorable results, he agreed with the head of the club to ask other football clubs to cooperate or passively compete in the game. Huaxia Club and Zall Club The Er Club gave relevant personnel a total of more than RMB 39.05 million. The procuratorial organ proposed that Li Tie be held criminally responsible for the crimes of bribery, bribery, unit bribery, bribery of non-state staff, and bribery of non-state staff.
During the trial, the procuratorate presented relevant evidence, and the defendant Li Tie and his defender conducted cross-examination. The prosecution and defense fully expressed their opinions under the auspices of the court. Li Tie made a final statement and expressed his guilt and repentance in court.
At the end of the trial, the court adjourned and announced the verdict at a later date.
Public information shows that Li Tie was born in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province on May 18, 1977. He was a Chinese professional football player who played as a midfielder. He was selected for the national team in 2001 and participated in the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan with the team. Li Tie has also played for Everton Football Club, Sheffield United Football Club and other Premier League teams.
In January 2020, Li Tie became the head coach of the Chinese National Men's Football Team, and later submitted a request to the Chinese Football Association to resign as the head coach of the Chinese National Men's Football Team at the end of 2021. On December 3, 2021, the Football Association officially announced that it had approved his resignation application.
Data map: Li Tie.
In November 2022, Li Tie was reported to be under investigation, setting off a new round of "anti-corruption storm" in Chinese football. On August 2, 2023, Li Tie was prosecuted.
An anti-corruption special film broadcast by CCTV in January this year revealed that Li Tie became the head coach of the national football team through bribery and was suspected of manipulating games while serving as the head coach of China Fortune Land Development and Wuhan Zall Club.
In August 2015, Li Tie joined Hebei China Fortune Club and served as head coach for the first time. At that time, there were only 9 games left in the season, and China Fortune Land Development was only ranked 6th. The prospect of surpassing the league was not optimistic. As soon as Li Tie took office, the club made it clear that it hoped he would use his connections to buy off his opponents.
After Li Tie took office, he played a magical "eight-game winning streak" in the last eight games of the season, allowing China Fortune Land Development to lead its competitors by one point and successfully surpass the league.
After investigation, the so-called "super miracle" was completely manipulated by the hands of money behind the scenes. For example, in the last game of the season, China Fortune Land Development must win or draw to ensure the Super League, and the club spent heavily on this.
According to the confession of Meng Jing, the former chairman of Hebei China Fortune Club: "In the last game, we spent roughly 14 million yuan. At that time, we greeted the Shenzhen club, the head coach and the players."
Li Tie tasted the "sweetness" of match-fixing at China Fortune Club. When he was hired as the head coach of Wuhan Zall Club in 2017, he began to actively promote match-fixing to the club.
In August 2019, when Li Tie learned that the Chinese Football Association was going to form a men's national selection team to participate in the East Asian Cup, he felt that an opportunity had come.
Li Tie's idea of paying bribes is the same as that of match-fixing, and he feels that multiple insurances are needed. On the one hand, he lobbied the Zall Club to pay him to do his work, saying that if he could "come up", he would repay the club in many ways. The club paid 2 million yuan to bribe Chen Xuyuan. On the other hand, Li Tie felt that Liu Yi, the then secretary-general of the Football Association, also had a lot of say, so he gave Liu Yi 1 million yuan out of his own pocket.
After becoming the coach of the national football team as he wished, Li Tie signed a so-called "contract" with the Zall Club for a total amount of 60 million yuan. In fact, it was just a cover to cover up the nature of the power-for-money transaction. Subsequently, he quickly selected four players from the Zall team into the national team roster.
Li Tie confessed in front of the camera: "I regret it very much. We still have to be down-to-earth and take the right path. Don't be eager for quick success and don't try every means to take shortcuts." (End)