Former China coach Li Tie pleads guilty to taking over $10M in bribes

His former boss, the fallen Chinese Football Association chairman Chen Xuyuan, was jailed for life this week for taking bribes worth $11 million.

Local journalists gathered in front of the court in Hubei province where the 46-year-old Li's case will be heard.

Li, who was China coach from January 2020 until December 2021, is accused of giving and taking bribes, state broadcaster CCTV said.

Li, who played in the Premier League 34 times between 2002 and 2004, featured in a documentary aired on CCTV in January about widespread corruption in Chinese football.

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

In the program Li said he had arranged nearly $421,000 in bribes to secure the head coach position, and helped to 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.

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

Li played nearly 100 games for China.