Former China coach Li Tie has been charged with corruption, the country’s top prosecutor announced on Wednesday, as Beijing tries to stem malfeasance in the sports world.
Since November, a series of Chinese soccer officials, including federation president Chen Xuyuan, have been under investigation for “violations of the law”.
The indictment of Li Tie, one of China’s most famous footballers, comes months after authorities announced they had opened a criminal investigation against the former Premier League star Everton.
Li “is suspected of having accepted and offered bribes to and from non-state employees,” the prosecutor said in a statement.
A local prosecutor’s office in central China’s Hubei province has “undertaken public prosecution (against Li) in accordance with the law”, he added.
The 46-year-old coach notably played at Everton between 2002 and 2006, and has more than 90 caps with China.
He had taken over the Chinese team in 2020 but left his post in 2021, after failing to qualify his country for the World Cup in Qatar last year.
A football fan, Chinese President Xi Jinping hopes to see his country host and even win a World Cup one day.
But his anti-corruption campaign has had a big impact on Chinese football in recent months, hitting a sector already struggling financially and still suffering the consequences of Beijing’s now abandoned zero-covid policy.