Beijing, Dec 13 (Reporter) The former coach of the Chinese national men's football team, Li Tie, has been sentenced to 20 years in jail for bribery, state media reported. Li Tie, who also played for Everton in the English Premier League, confessed earlier this year to fixing matches, accepting bribes, and offering bribes to get the top coaching job, BBC reported. The case shows how President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption crackdown has cut through sport, banking, and the military. Earlier this week, three former officials from the Chinese Football Association (CFA) were also handed jail sentences for bribery. More than a dozen coaches and players have been investigated. Li, who was the national team's head coach from January 2020 to December 2021, pleaded guilty in March to taking over $16 million in bribes. The court said that this happened from 2015, when he was an assistant coach at the Hebei China Fortune Club, until 2021, when he quit as the national coach, the report said. In exchange for the bribes, Li would select certain individuals for the national team and help football clubs win competitions. The 47-year-old was featured in an anti-corruption documentary aired by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV early this year, wherein he apologised for his offences. "I'm very sorry. I should have kept my head to the ground and followed the right path," he said. "There were certain things that at the time were common practices in football." According to reports, Li had made 92 appearances for China and played at the 2002 World Cup—the country's only appearance in the finals so far...////...