On Nov. 26, Li Tie, the former head coach of China's men's national soccer team, is suspected of serious violations of the law and is currently under investigation by the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Group of the Central Sports Administration and the Hubei Provincial Supervision Committee, the Hubei Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision reported on its website.
According to the definition of the law, a violation of the law is a faulty act that violates the laws in force and causes some harm to society. According to the severity of the circumstances, violations can be divided into general violations and serious violations (i.e., criminal acts). According to the violations, they can be divided into administrative violations, civil violations and criminal violations. Li Tie is suspected of having committed a serious violation of the law. He violated what law "serious violations" which means that the amount of money involved in the case is huge, or the nature of the bad, the circumstances are serious, the social harm is huge. These all need the relevant departments in the investigation to reach a conclusion. However, in recent years, about Li Tie's story a lot, some have been confirmed, some still to be confirmed.
The afternoon of November 2, Li Tie's last public appearance was at the Shenyang Sports Institute to participate in the Li Tie public training course. After the event, he also took pictures with the students.
In the 2015 season, Hebei Huaxia Happiness managed to overtake the second place in the Chinese First Division, while Dalian finished third and failed to be promoted. At the end of the year, the Dalian Football Association (DFA) held a press conference and publicly hired a lawyer to draft a statement reporting that Hebei Huaxia Happiness had bought fake goals against their rivals in the last five rounds of the season's China First Division. This report also involved then China Happiness coach Li Tie, but the matter was ultimately left open.
When talking about Li Tie being investigated, Shi Xueqing, then general manager of Dalian Party Club, said bluntly, "The people's hearts are happy, the iron case is like a mountain, good and evil will be rewarded." .
In the 15th round of the 2016 Chinese Super League, Hebei Huaxia Happiness suffered two consecutive defeats, losing 0-2 to Shanghai SIPG at home. After the game, in the press conference, the team coach Li Tie "bombarded" the national soccer team captain Guo Bingyan said the other party's attitude, threatened to cancel the qualification of Qinhuangdao to host the Chinese Super League, threatened to not let Hebei Huaxia happy players into the national team. But less than 24 hours, "Li Tie bombarded Guo Bingyan" storm to the two met in the corridor of the Football Association a smile, Li Tie face to face apology drew to a close.
On January 5, 2020, Li Tie officially became the head coach of the Chinese men's football team, and then announced his resignation from all positions at Wuhan Zhuoer.In late February, the national soccer team prepared for the top 40 competition, and the "Iron Phase I" list came out, from the abandonment of naturalized players to the disappearance of the u23 players, and then, as a civilian team without any big names, the number of national football team members was the same as Beijing Guoan, second only to Guangzhou Evergrande, which had been selected by the national football team. As a team with no big-name players, Wuhan Zhuoer has been selected for the national soccer team in numbers equal to Beijing Guoan and second only to Guangzhou Evergrande. This list makes the outside world to Li Tie some understanding of "cronyism" opinion. The slogan of Li Tie's new national soccer team is "Unity is Iron", but his years of coaching the national team have been filled with criticism from the beginning.
The Chinese men's soccer team has been unable to play at home since the second half of the 40-team tournament due to the broader needs of the country's anti-epidemic policy, and has been forced to play their home matches in Sharjah, UAE and Doha, Qatar. After finishing in the top 12 of the world qualifiers in October 2021, Li Tie has made it clear that when it comes to living and playing overseas for a long period of time, he can only move around the two points of the hotel and the training ground, "I feel like we are like homeless children."
On November 17, 2021, the national soccer team drew 1-1 with Australia in the top 12 of the World Qualifying Tournament, and Li Tie gave a 32-minute speech at the post-match press conference, which once again triggered a huge controversy. This press conference included his complaints about the objective difficulties, "in exchange for foreign coaches, foreign aid must be crazy", criticized that there is no difference between home and away is "brainless", including two times to table who you are "the most understanding of the national soccer and Chinese Super League players". Chinese Super League players," and "If these two games are played in Suzhou, it is very likely to go home with six points." Li Tie then took to social media to comment on the situation. Subsequently, Li Tie posted illegal content on social media that allegedly infringed on the rights and interests of national soccer sponsors, causing strong dissatisfaction in the outside world.
At the end of November 2021, Li Tie was in a deep crisis of dismissal, and a report by Football Daily attracted widespread attention in the industry.
On January 4, 2020, Jose replaced Li Tie on the Wuhan team. At that time, Li Tie's coaching staff stayed on to help him with the team. However, Jose was not really the head coach of the team, as he had no real power, let alone the right to sign, and had to follow Li Tie's remote command, even if he made substitutions on the spot and won bonuses in matches.
Li Tie's control over the Wuhan team was also reflected in this period. Almost all of the signings and transfers of Wuhan's players were handled by "Comande Sports", a company contracted by an agent close to Li Tie. However, companies associated with Li Tie can be found on the internet, excluding this agency, which is allegedly registered in Japan.
In the early 2020s, secret stories about the "deep cooperation" between the agency and Li Tie included the failure of a number of international players who were briefly selected for Li Tie's national team to be selected for the national soccer team because they refused the agency's request to sign them, and the transfer of an international player to a Chinese Super League giants. The agency demanded money from the player on the grounds that Li Tie had helped matchmaking. After being rejected, the international player also disappeared from the national soccer team; some players were signed by the company after being selected for the national soccer team, but they could not get a chance to play and were then discarded.
In 2018 and 2019, Li Tie coached Wuhan Zall, his personal annual salary of 12 million yuan, in 2020 after the shift to "behind the scenes", his annual salary reached 30 million yuan. However, because the CFA in principle does not allow national coaches to work part-time in club teams, this new contract should not be filed in the FA.
In the 2020 season, Wuhan barely survived relegation through the Super League playoffs. In the process, the cooperation between Li Tie and Wuhan club also came to an end. According to several media reports, Wuhan Zall Club refused to pay Li Tie's salary because he was not satisfied with his work, but as the head coach of the national soccer team, Li Tie has always stood up to help demand his salary. During this time, CFA executives also came forward to help him.
In August 2022, the second phase of the Chinese Super League Premier League started, the Football Association had Wuhan Changjiang team (Wuhan Zhuoer team, Wuhan team) deducted three points, banned its players introduced this season, the arrears of wages "big head" from Li Tie. However, Wuhan Changjiang does not agree with this arrears. It not only provided a new factual basis, but also worked hard with the CFA, stating that if punished, they would withdraw from the CSL. although Wuhan Changjiang temporarily survived the crisis at that time, but after entering November, the team was fined twice for salary arrears, with a fine of 9 points before and after. There is now a lot of speculation. Li Tie's investigation came from a report by Wuhan Changjiang FC. Yan Xiongfei, a sports media person who used to work for CCTV, revealed that Tian Xudong, the chairman of Wuhan Changjiang Club, was also taken away by the relevant departments for investigation. It is uncertain whether he is assisting in the investigation or under investigation.
In January 2020, Li Tie turned his dream into reality with more than 30 years of hard work and effort. As he said at the national soccer coaching press conference, "It took me 35 years to go from a kid who couldn't play soccer to the head coach of the national soccer team. I am proud and honored to say that I have achieved my dream."
But now, Li Tie is suspected of seriously violating the law. Not only will he completely destroy his soccer dream, he will also face legal sanctions. For Li Tie, who has linked his life with Chinese soccer, what is Chinese soccer? Will Li Tie be investigated? "Digging carrots from the mud" people are waiting to see, triggering another anti-corruption storm in the Chinese soccer world!
