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The former coach of the Chinese national football team, Li Tai, who is detained on corruption charges, admitted to paying nearly 400,000 euros to buy his position in January 2020, as part of a campaign led by Beijing to eliminate rampant corruption in the country.
During the confessions broadcast by China Central Television (CCTV) during a documentary yesterday, Tuesday, Tai (46 years old) said that he contributed to fixing the results of some matches when he was a coach of a club.
He continued sheepishly, “I'm very sorry. I should have kept my head down and followed the right path. There are some things that were, at the time, common practices in football.”
Tai was appointed coach of the first team, succeeding the experienced Italian Marcello Lippi in early 2020, when the former English Everton player (2002-2003) announced that he had achieved “one of the biggest dreams” in his life.
In order to assume the position of coach of the “Dragon” national team, he explained in the documentary that he asked the administrators of the “Wuhan Zall” club, which was supervising his training at the time, to intervene on his behalf with the local football federation.
The coach promised his club to return the favor once he was appointed, so Wuhan paid 255,000 euros as a bribe to former federation president Chen Siuhan.
In return, Tai claimed that he gave $140,000 from his own pocket to the Secretary-General as well.
Shortly after his appointment, he summoned 4 players from Wuhan who, according to the club president who participated in the documentary, were not qualified to play “at this level.”
Tai failed to lead the “Dragon” to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and was dismissed from his position in December 2021.
He also admitted that fixing the results of matches allowed teams from the second division to advance to the first division.
The national anti-corruption authorities launched an investigation against “Thai” at the end of 2022, which led to the resignation of about 10 senior officials in the local federation, including former president Seohan.
Siohan was accused of corruption last September, and he admitted in the documentary that he received large sums of money from players who wanted to gain his approval.
“I want to apologize to all football fans in China,” he said.
These prosecutions in the game are part of a major anti-corruption campaign initiated by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The Chinese government has high aspirations for its country's national team, ranked 79th in the world, which is participating in the 2023 Asian Cup finals, which begin next Friday in Qatar.
