Read the Li Tie case in one article: The total amount involved in the case exceeds 110 million! It is expected that the verdict will be pronounced in late May or the death sentence will be suspended indefinitely

Li Tie, the former head coach of the Chinese national men's football team, was tried in open court in the Intermediate People's Court of Xianning City, Hubei Province, in accordance with the law on suspicion of accepting bribes, offering bribes, offering bribes by units, accepting bribes from non-state functionaries, and offering bribes to non-state functionaries. Next, let's review the entire Li Tie case.

Li Tieqiren

Li Tie, 46 years old, played as a midfielder when he was a player, and represented the national football team in the 2002 World Cup, and later landed in the Premier League and played for Everton. After retiring, Li Tie served as an assistant coach of Guangzhou Evergrande, successively assisting Lippi, Cannavaro, and Scolari, and became the assistant coach of the national football team in 2014.

In July 2015, Li Tie coached the coach of Hebei Huaxia Happiness and led the team to enter the Chinese Super League. In October 2016, he assisted Lippi again as the Chinese assistant coach of the national football team. In November 2017, Li Tie served as the head coach of Wuhan Zall and led the team to the Chinese Super League in the 2018 season.

On October 31, 2019, Li Tie served as the coach of the national football selection team and led the team to participate in the East Asian Cup. On January 2, 2020, he officially became the head coach of the national football team and led the team to the top 40, but only won 1 win, 2 draws and 3 losses in the first 6 rounds of the top 12, and finally resigned on December 2, 2021.

Li Tie fell off the horse

On November 26, 2022, it was officially announced that Li Tie was suspected of serious violations of the law and was under investigation. On August 2, 2023, Li Tie was suspected of accepting bribes, offering bribes, offering bribes by units, accepting bribes by non-state functionaries, and offering bribes to non-state functionaries, and was designated by the Hubei Provincial People's Procuratorate to be reviewed and prosecuted by the Xianning Municipal People's Procuratorate, and the Xianning Municipal People's Procuratorate filed a public prosecution with the Xianning Intermediate People's Court in accordance with the law.

On January 9, 2024, CCTV's anti-corruption feature film disclosed that when coaching Hebei Huaxia Happiness, Li Tie instructed assistant coach Zheng Bin to play match-fixing for defender Li Fei of the Shenzhen team, and Li Fei offered 6 million yuan and swallowed it himself.

Regarding match-fixing, Li Tie confessed: "When I was a player, what I hated the most was people who played match-fixing, but because I knew that these might help our team increase (surpass) chances and become the head coach of a team for the first time, I also have the mentality of wanting to prove myself." ”

When coaching Wuhan Zall, Li Tie once again instigated the club to play match-fixing. In August 2019, when he learned that the Football Association was going to form a national football selection team to participate in the East Asian Cup, Li Tie persuaded Wuhan Zall to take out 2 million yuan to bribe Chen Xuyuan in order to become the coach, and gave Liu Yi 1 million yuan out of his own pocket. After becoming the coach of the national football team, Li Tie signed a so-called "contract" with Zall Club with a total amount of 60 million yuan, and selected four Zall players into the national team squad.

The first instance was held

On March 28, 2024, Li Tie was suspected of accepting bribes, offering bribes, offering bribes by units, accepting bribes from non-state functionaries, and offering bribes to non-state functionaries, and was tried in open court in accordance with the law in the Intermediate People's Court of Xianning City, Hubei Province.

According to mainland law, the trial procedure of a criminal case includes pre-trial preparation, announcement of the opening of the trial, court investigation, court debate, and the defendant's final statement. The presentation and cross-examination of evidence belongs to the court investigation stage.

At 8:30 a.m., Li Tie's case was tried in the first instance at the Intermediate People's Court of Xianning City, Hubei Province, and was adjourned at noon, and the court's investigation phase had not yet ended. It wasn't until nearly 21 p.m. that the first trial ended. Counting the 45-minute lunch break in between, the first trial was more than 12 hours.

The Xianning Municipal People's Procuratorate alleges: From 2019 to 2021, the defendant Li Tie took advantage of his position as the head coach of the Chinese National Men's Football Selection Team (hereinafter referred to as the Men's National Football Team) and the head coach of the Chinese National Men's Football Team (hereinafter referred to as the Men's National Football Team) or the facilitation of the formation of his authority and status to provide assistance to relevant units and individuals in matters such as the selection of players for the national team, winning competitions, and signing clubs, and illegally accepted a total of more than 50.89 million yuan from others.

In 2019, Li Tiewei was elected as the head coach of the men's national football team, asked others to help, and later gave others RMB 1 million in 2020.

In 2019, during his tenure at Wuhan Zall Professional Football Club Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Zall Club), Li Tie agreed with the person in charge of the club to ask others to provide help, and the club gave others RMB 2 million in order to seek benefits such as being elected as the head coach of the men's national football selection team and improving the influence of Zall Club.

From 2017 to 2019, Li Tie took advantage of his position as the general manager and head coach of Zall Club to provide assistance to Hebei Huaxia Happiness Football Club Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Huaxia Club) in matters such as player transfer and winning games, and successively received a total of RMB 26.75 million from Huaxia Club.

From 2015 to 2019, during Li Tie's tenure at Huaxia Club and Zall Club, in order to win the game or obtain favorable results, he agreed with the person in charge of the club to ask other football clubs to cooperate or play negatively in the game, and Huaxia Club and Zall Club gave a total of more than 39.05 million yuan to the relevant personnel. The procuratorate requested that Li Tie be investigated for criminal responsibility for the crimes of accepting bribes, offering bribes, offering bribes to units, accepting bribes from non-state functionaries, and offering bribes to non-state functionaries.

During the trial, the procuratorial organs presented relevant evidence, the defendant Li Tie and his defender conducted cross-examination, the prosecution and defense fully expressed their opinions under the auspices of the court, and Li Tie made a final statement and pleaded guilty and repented in court. At the end of the trial, the court announced an adjournment and announced the verdict at a later date.

Previously, Chen Xuyuan was sentenced to life imprisonment for accepting bribes, and Yu Hongchen was sentenced to 13 years in prison for accepting bribes. Dong Zheng, the former general manager of the Chinese Super League Co., Ltd., was sentenced to 8 years in prison for accepting bribes, and Chen Yongliang, the former executive deputy secretary general of the Chinese Football Association and former director of the national team management department, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for accepting bribes.

Is it possible?

Lawyer Zhou Zhaocheng explained: "Taking Chen Xuyuan as a comparison, I judge that Li Tie is the lightest and indefinite, and the possibility of a reprieve is very high. According to public information, Li Tie received a single bribe from the Wuhan Yangtze River Club with a total amount of 48 million, and the total amount may reach the level of 10 million, or even hundreds of millions.

According to judicial interpretations, such an amount is enough to sentence more than 10 years in prison, or even life imprisonment and the death penalty. However, the first instance of the case was in the Intermediate People's Court, so the minimum should be indefinite, and even the death penalty is not ruled out. ”

Lawyer Zhou Meng explained: "From what we know now, and the amount of his crime may be larger, the possibility of this sentence being higher than Chen Xuyuan is still relatively high."

"For other sentencing circumstances, whether there is a voluntary surrender and confession, meritorious service, and so on, and we have no way to verify it, there is no way to make a comprehensive judgment. It can only be said that in the case of this criminal act and the amount alone, the punishment may be higher than Chen Xuyuan. ”

Don't forget, Li Tie is guilty of five crimes, and under the combined punishment for several crimes, the sentencing is indeed likely to exceed that of the programmer. Previously, Chen Xuyuan was sentenced to life imprisonment for accepting bribes, and if the punishment is higher than Chen Xuyuan, then Li Tie is at least life and may be sentenced to a suspended death sentence.

When will the verdict be pronounced?

Li Tie is over the first trial and will announce the verdict on a later date, so how long does it take for the first instance verdict to be announced?

In accordance with the relevant provisions of the law, the first instance generally takes two months from the beginning of the trial to the verdict, and the longest is not more than three months.

For example, in the case of Chen Xuyuan, the first-instance trial was held on January 29 this year, and the verdict of the first-instance trial was pronounced on March 26, less than two months. In other words, Li Tie's first-instance verdict is expected to be before May 28, in late May.