{"id":155175,"date":"2024-02-23T15:43:45","date_gmt":"2024-02-23T15:43:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/02\/23\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\/"},"modified":"2024-02-23T15:43:45","modified_gmt":"2024-02-23T15:43:45","slug":"former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/02\/23\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Everton midfielder \u2018sentenced to life in prison\u2019 for corruption and match-fixing \u2013"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>Former Everton midfielder Li Tie has been sentenced to life in prison in China for a string of corruption offences, according to local reports.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The 46-year-old joined Everton on loan in 2002 and played 29 games as the Toffees secured a seventh-place\u00a0Premier League\u00a0finish under David Moyes. He then joined on a permanent basis, signing a three-year contract, but featured in just seven more games across all competitions after suffering a broken leg in February 2004.<\/p>\n<p>Complications during his recovery effectively ended his career in England \u2013 he played just once for Sheffield United in a two-year tenure between 2006 and 2008 \u2013 and he returned to China to finish his career with Liaoning Whowin.<\/p>\n<p>Li went on to become assistant coach at Guangzhou Evergrande and Hebei China Fortune, as well as supporting the Chinese national team, and eventually became Hebei\u2019s head coach in 2015. Four years later, he assumed control of the national side.<\/p>\n<p>But a year after leaving his post, Li was accused of \u2018accepting and offering bribes\u2019 amid a widespread investigation into corruption in Chinese football.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/01hqajbhbrn7vmf0sth2.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Li Tie\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>Li Tie during his spell at Everton \/ Gary M. Prior\/GettyImages<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n<p>Li subsequently confessed to paying \u00a3330,000 in bribes to become China\u2019s head coach, and locally based journalist\u00a0Mark Dreyer\u00a0reports that he\u2019s subsequently been sentenced to life in prison for his crimes. CFA president Chen Xuyuan has received a 15-year sentence and Du Zhaocai, another high ranking official, will be behind bars for 13 years.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement read out on state broadcaster CCTV, Li said: \u201cI\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy gaining \u2018success\u2019 through such improper means, it actually made me more and more impatient and eager for quick results.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn order to achieve good performance, I resorted to influencing referees, bribing opposing players and coaches, sometimes through clubs dealing with other clubs. This behaviour becomes a habit, and eventually, there is even a slight dependence on these practices.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- AI CONTENT END 1 --><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Everton midfielder Li Tie has been sentenced to life in prison in China for a string of corruption offences, according to local reports. The 46-year-old joined Everton on loan in 2002 and played 29 games as the Toffees secured a seventh-place\u00a0Premier League\u00a0finish under David Moyes. He then joined on a permanent basis, signing a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":155176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Former Everton midfielder \u2018sentenced to life in prison\u2019 for corruption and match-fixing \u2013 - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/02\/23\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Former Everton midfielder \u2018sentenced to life in prison\u2019 for corruption and match-fixing \u2013 - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Everton midfielder Li Tie has been sentenced to life in prison in China for a string of corruption offences, according to local reports. The 46-year-old joined Everton on loan in 2002 and played 29 games as the Toffees secured a seventh-place\u00a0Premier League\u00a0finish under David Moyes. He then joined on a permanent basis, signing a [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/02\/23\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-23T15:43:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ghana News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ghana News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/02\\\/23\\\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/02\\\/23\\\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ghana News\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c70749f3edfbfcd92d45e933f0fe10b5\"},\"headline\":\"Former Everton midfielder \u2018sentenced to life in prison\u2019 for corruption and match-fixing \u2013\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-23T15:43:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/02\\\/23\\\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":352,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/02\\\/23\\\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"articleSection\":[\"Sports\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/02\\\/23\\\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/02\\\/23\\\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/02\\\/23\\\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\\\/\",\"name\":\"Former Everton midfielder \u2018sentenced to life in prison\u2019 for corruption and match-fixing \u2013 - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/02\\\/23\\\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/02\\\/23\\\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-23T15:43:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c70749f3edfbfcd92d45e933f0fe10b5\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/02\\\/23\\\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/02\\\/23\\\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/02\\\/23\\\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/02\\\/23\\\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Former Everton midfielder \u2018sentenced to life in prison\u2019 for corruption and match-fixing \u2013\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"Ghana mma provides breaking news, top stories in Ghana, Africa, business, entertainment, politics and more.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c70749f3edfbfcd92d45e933f0fe10b5\",\"name\":\"Ghana News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ghana News\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2024\\\/author\\\/ghanamma\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Former Everton midfielder \u2018sentenced to life in prison\u2019 for corruption and match-fixing \u2013 - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/02\/23\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Former Everton midfielder \u2018sentenced to life in prison\u2019 for corruption and match-fixing \u2013 - Ghanamma.com","og_description":"Former Everton midfielder Li Tie has been sentenced to life in prison in China for a string of corruption offences, according to local reports. The 46-year-old joined Everton on loan in 2002 and played 29 games as the Toffees secured a seventh-place\u00a0Premier League\u00a0finish under David Moyes. He then joined on a permanent basis, signing a [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/02\/23\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\/","og_site_name":"Ghanamma.com","article_published_time":"2024-02-23T15:43:45+00:00","author":"Ghana News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ghana News","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/02\/23\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/02\/23\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\/"},"author":{"name":"Ghana News","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/#\/schema\/person\/c70749f3edfbfcd92d45e933f0fe10b5"},"headline":"Former Everton midfielder \u2018sentenced to life in prison\u2019 for corruption and match-fixing \u2013","datePublished":"2024-02-23T15:43:45+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/02\/23\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\/"},"wordCount":352,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/02\/23\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"","articleSection":["Sports"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/02\/23\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/02\/23\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/02\/23\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\/","name":"Former Everton midfielder \u2018sentenced to life in prison\u2019 for corruption and match-fixing \u2013 - Ghanamma.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/02\/23\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/02\/23\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"","datePublished":"2024-02-23T15:43:45+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/#\/schema\/person\/c70749f3edfbfcd92d45e933f0fe10b5"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/02\/23\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/02\/23\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/02\/23\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\/#primaryimage","url":"","contentUrl":""},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/02\/23\/former-everton-midfielder-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-corruption-and-match-fixing\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Former Everton midfielder \u2018sentenced to life in prison\u2019 for corruption and match-fixing \u2013"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/","name":"Ghanamma.com","description":"Ghana mma provides breaking news, top stories in Ghana, Africa, business, entertainment, politics and more.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/#\/schema\/person\/c70749f3edfbfcd92d45e933f0fe10b5","name":"Ghana News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/22cb97c2b08df229330efb2b8c2645feaae8d3ca3ee434035fbb668b5b82f570?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Ghana News"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024"],"url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/author\/ghanamma\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155175\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}