Chinese football legend Li Tie loses appeal against 20-year corruption sentence
Former Everton midfielder and China player and coach had appealed against the prison term he was handed in December
A court in China on Wednesday dismissed an appeal by Li Tie, the former footballer and coach, against his 20-year prison sentence for corruption.
The Hubei Provincial Higher People’s Court rejected the appeal and upheld the original sentence imposed on the former men’s national team head coach, mainland Chinese media reported.
Li, who formerly played in midfield for Everton in the English Premier League and represented China in the 2002 World Cup, had lodged an appeal 10 days after being sentenced on December 13.
He had been convicted of taking more than 110 million yuan (US$15.1 million) in bribes between 2015 and 2021, having pleaded guilty to the charges in a trial in March last year.
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An intermediate court in Hubei had handed down the original sentence, which was one of the heaviest penalties imposed in the nationwide clampdown on the sporting sector.