Former Everton star sentenced to 20 years in prison

He pleaded guilty to the charges.

A former Everton player who played alongside Wayne Rooney has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Li Tie, who played 40 times for the Toffees between 2002 and 2006 and later for Sheffield United, received a sentence from a court in China.

Li Tie was found guilty of giving and receiving bribes of £11.9 million between 2015 and 2021, as reported by state media CCTV on Friday.

During his career, he managed the China national team between 2019 and 2021 but has been under investigation since 2022 for 'serious violations of the law'.

It comes after the Chinese government intensified efforts to stop corruption in Chinese football, with over a dozen officials of the Chinese Football Association investigated or charged.

Former China FA chief Chen Xuyuan was sentenced to life in prison in March for taking bribes of over 81m yuan (£8.7 million).

Li Tie was one of the most famous footballers to come from China, representing his country 92 times before going on to manage his national side.

It is claimed that while managing the China national team he picked specific players in exchange for bribes which amassed over 50m yuan (£5.4 million) during his spell in charge.

The 47-year-old admitted to arranging more than £300,000 in bribes and was also accused of match-fixing when he was managing club sides Hebei China Fortune and Wuhan Zall.

In a documentary aired by CCTV at the start of the year, Li Tie said:

“I'm very sorry. I should have kept my head to the ground and followed the right path. There were certain things that at the time were common practices in football.”

The investigation which took two years to complete found that 41 clubs across China were involved in the fixing of 120 games, with 38 players and five club officials hit with lifetime bans.

Li Tie and Manchester City's Sun Jihai became the first players from China to play in the English Premier League back in 2002, propelling them to fame in their homeland.