Pallade Veneta - Former China men's football coach jailed 20 years for corruption

Former Everton player Li "was sentenced to a fixed-term imprisonment of 20 years at an initial trial", state news agency Xinhua said, without giving further details.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has waged a sweeping crackdown against official corruption since coming to power over a decade ago.

Anti-graft authorities took aim at the sport industry in 2022 and have announced a string of convictions for former football administrators this week.

Li, who was China coach from January 2020 until December 2021, pleaded guilty earlier this year to accepting over $10 million in bribes.

The 47-year-old is one of China's most recognisable former footballers and notably played as a midfielder with Premier League side Everton.

He featured in a documentary aired by state broadcaster CCTV in January about widespread corruption in Chinese football.

CCTV occasionally airs confessions by criminal suspects before they have appeared in court, a practice widely condemned by rights groups.

In the programme, Li said he had arranged nearly $421,000 in bribes to secure the head coach position and helped fix matches when he was a club coach in the Chinese Super League.

"I'm very sorry. I should have kept my head to the ground and followed the right path," said Li during the show.

"There were certain things that at the time were common practices in football."

Li played nearly 100 games for China.

- String of convictions -

Chinese authorities have announced a spate of corruption convictions this week, and state media said the sentencing of the former vice chief of the national sport administration was also expected Friday.

On Wednesday, Liu Yi, who was secretary general of the Chinese Football Association (CFA), was handed an 11-year sentence and fined 3.6 million yuan ($495,000) for taking bribes.

The same day, the former head of the CFA's referees management office Tan Hai was given six and a half years and a 200,000-yuan fine for the same crime.

And on Tuesday, Qi Jun, the CFA's ex-chief of strategic planning, was sentenced to seven years and slapped with a 600,000-yuan penalty.

Former CFA chief Chen Xuyuan was jailed for life in March for accepting bribes.

Proponents of Xi's corruption crackdown say the policy promotes clean governance, but others say it also serves as a means for him to purge political rivals.

Xi is a self-proclaimed football fan who wants China to host and win the World Cup one day, but the men's national team has long failed to impress.

FIFA currently ranks China 90th in the world, one place above the tiny Caribbean island of Curacao.

Z.Ottaviano--PV