BEIJING - A former star player in China's top football league has been sentenced to death for murdering a man over a gambling debt, state press reported Thursday.

Wen Junwu, formerly with the now defunct Guangdong Apollo Football Club based in southern Guangzhou city, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve on Wednesday for killing Li Jiahao, the China Daily said.

The reprieve likely means that Wen's death sentence will be commuted to life in prison after two years.

Wen owed Li 80,000 yuan (US$11,700) in gambling debts at the time of Li's murder in June last year, the report said.

It said an accomplice was also sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve.

Wen, 30, was once a rising star in China's top soccer league, the paper said.

He incurred most of his debts from Internet gambling which Li helped broker, it said, but it was not clear if he gambled on Chinese league soccer matches.

For years, China's professional league has been loudly accused by sponsors, fans and media of being riddled with organised gambling rings that pay players, coaches and referees to throw matches.