China cleans up its corrupt football

China is taking unprecedented measures to tackle match-fixing. The sentencing of former national football coach Li Tie to twenty years in prison is just the latest in a series of steps taken by China to fight match manipulation.

Forty-three players have just been banned for life from Chinese football. Years of scandals, corruption, and match-fixing have tarnished the image of the country’s most popular sport, which is now facing a radical clean-up led by the highest levels of authority.

On 30 April, a superior people’s court upheld the 20-year prison sentence handed down in December to former China manager Li Tie for corruption. The court ruled that the offences of corruption and match-fixing were proven, both during his time as a club manager and when he was promoted to national team coach.

His testimony, broadcast in January on state television CCTV, shocked the entire nation as he admitted to paying nearly 400,000 euros (approximately 450,00 dollars) to be appointed coach and to manipulating matches.

"I deeply regret it. Some things were commonplace in football at the time," he said at the time.

(MH with MaSi – Source: Xinhua – Photo: © Unsplash)