The top professional football league in South Korea has imposed lifetime bans on 10 players accused of match fixing. One of them is said to have accepted 120m won ($110,000; £67,000) to lose a match, and then shared the proceeds with team mates. Eight of the players indicted are from the Daejeon Citizen team. It is the toughest-ever penalty issued in the K-League's 28-year history. They could face up to seven years in jail if found guilty in court. Daejeon Citizen lost 0-3 to the Pohang Steelers on 6 April. Brokers and players from other teams have also been indicted. An 11th player received a five-year ban. The scandal has also been linked to a player found dead last month in a hotel room. Eight of the banned footballers play for the Daejeon Citizen team. The South Korean news agency Yonhap reported a suicide note had been discovered referring to the match-fixing ring. The K-League will ask the Korea Football Association to block the banned players from taking up other football-related posts. "We made the decision, determined that this would be the first and the last match-fixing scandal in the league," Kwak Young-Cheol, head of the K-League's disciplinary committee, told journalists. "Players must keep in mind that they will be kicked out of the sport permanently if they get caught committing wrongdoing." Mr Kwak also said the players' bans would be reviewed if they were cleared of wrongdoing in criminal proceedings. The Daejeon Citizen team will lose 30% of its annual share from Sports Toto, the national sports lottery. The loss amounts to about 270m won for the team. Professional teams regularly receive portions of the sales of the lottery. Gwangju FC and Sangju Sangmu Phoenix, which each have one player banned, will each lose 10% of their lottery share. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13807142
I call for the relegation of the entire damn Daejeon team. Those eight players shamed Korean football and their souls for some dirty cash. Hope they have fun with their unemployment. I won't say the same for Gwangju or Sangju, simply because unlike Daejeon, half their players weren't involved, only one apiece. Although this has got to suck for Gwangju, this kind of thing happening in their debut season and all. Seriously, when are they planning on releasing names?
That is a very mean thing to do. Especially after you read this, written by 김현회 of course. I told you guys, his columns are the best. A very loyal Dajeon Citizen fan. You dont see too often these kind of fan... 김현회 | 대전월드컵경기장이 본적인 이 남자 http://sports.news.nate.com/view/20110614n04088
Well, I admit, at least the scandal was not as big as the Italian Serie A, where entire club managements were involved, but my point still stands: eight players in one team. Those eight players individually, I'm going to safely and logically assume, knew the guy next to him was in on the scandal, just like he is. If that doesn't scream "half the roster engaging in COORDINATED and PRE-PLANNED match-fixing", I don't know what does. =/
there's an article in the nytimes about it. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/20/sports/soccer/20iht-soccer20.html?_r=1
Isn't this punishment basically what all the other match-fixing players are getting? I would expect the military court to hand out something much worse...
i wonder how they concluded the investigations so quickly, if that is in fact what they did. perhaps the full extent of the scandal is being censored. after all, how likely is it that no players on any of the top teams were involved?
Because 99.99% of them most likely weren't involved, period. -.- Honestly, the players in top teams have no reason to lose on purpose for money, they already have tons of cash with more to come every year, not to mention that they have a public image to take care of. Corrupt brokers and gamblers bribe relatively unknown players from lesser teams, because no one would raise a brow if they lose, and these small-time players will be tempted for the extra cash. Although I still think something's up with Suwon's Choi Sung-Kuk. I want to know exactly how he "proved his innocence" to the KFA. And that one player from Pohang Steelers who got the 5-year ban doesn't count as the "players from top teams taking part", he didn't exactly take part in the scandal like the other ten players who were banned for life. He just found out about Daejeon's intentional losing spree, and instead of reporting this, he went to his nearest Toto shop and bought tickets betting against Daejeon.
That's a rather cute anecdote, but it just doesn't stand up to the evidence (in other cases of match-fixing), nor to reason. The big teams attract the bulk of the betting, so this would imply that the bookies have the most at stake to fix matches involving the big teams, and probably would offer more money for these matches. See AC Milan, Juventus, and other Serie A teams found to have been involved in match-fixing. Also, your contention that players on big teams have no reason to lose is naive and ignores several important factors. Of course, money is the biggest reason why anyone would agree to throw a match. The salary cap for first year players is the same whether one plays for Suwon or Sangmu, so the money incentive has to be taken seriously. And considering that the salaries for most of the other players are also low, makes the offer of money attractive. But it is a very big myth that only low paid players fix matches. The fact that a given player earns a high salary doesn't guarantee that he will not be involved in match-fixing. No AC Milan or Juventus player is paid as little the vast majority of the players on Korea's big clubs. Yet they were fixing matches. Pete Rose was a top player earning top salary, and look what he was involved in. The members of Black Sox were top players, too. Finally, your assumption doesn't take into account that so much of the betting has to do with scorelines and point-shaving, and not just merely winning/losing. Do you seriously think that if offered enough money, you wouldn't find a single player on Suwon, Seongnam, or FC Seoul who would do his part in conceding a single goal when they are enjoying a two or three goal cushion? Or even a single goal cushion if the draw is inconsequential? You mentioned the Pohang player involved in betting. Do you think that someone who places bets based on insider info would have enough integrity to resist match-fixers? I mean if he lacks the integrity to make an honest bet, then why would you trust him not to fix matches? I think it's very possible, or even probable that the K-League saw no viable option but to sacrifice the minnows earning little revenue in order to save the league and the flagship teams. They had to save the K-League brand, whose image is largely associated with its Asian Champions League contenders. It's obvious to me that these present investigations would not have occurred if it hadn't been for some tragic incidents. So, we must question the results as well as the motives for these investigations. Perhaps the investigators themselves were bribed by the bigger clubs to keep silent. Very possible if you know anything about the Korean police. Think about that Incheon goalkeeper who appeared to have killed himself after having received an envelope containing cash. Do you think he is the only one at Incheon with any involvement? Probably the investigation of Incheon never even got initiated because, in Korea, investigation usually stops when someone dies.
I wanted to type down tl;dr, but I managed to read it all... and I'd have to say.. That's a pretty big accusation you got going there. You're not only accusing powerhouse team rosters of match-fixing, but you're also accusing the investigation as a farce. Here's my response to this: The K-League is NOT the Italian Serie A. The Serie A clubs that were caught match-fixing? Yeah, entire managements were involved, not just individual players. Obviously, the suits behind clubs like Juventus, Milan, etc. are going to want a piece of that pie regardless of the fact that they're already filthy rich. Whereas bribing just the players would be incredibly easy or incredibly difficult based on their current situation (financial and professional). And have you been watching the K-League as of late? I haven't seen flagship teams like FC Seoul concede suspiciously foolish goals recently, hell, the powerhouses right now are on fire. Honestly, not everything in Korea has to be a big X-Files episode to you, footballchic. You're so busy mentally masturbating to far-fetched conspiracy "theories" that you're forgetting that justice has been served to those who were involved, and that fans are still watching K-League games regardless of what ridiculous scenarios you can manage to conjure up. Stop hijacking threads to spread your usual nonsense. Not everything is a conspiracy. Should I turn on the X-Files theme song for you while you ponder on which thread to hijack next in BS Korea? EDIT: Oh, and before I get the usual footballchic-style rebuttals, please present solid EVIDENCE before you argue about how flagship teams were involved and how the police were "obviously" bribed by the brokers.
You know, this isn't case closed I hope. If it came to the daylight it might be huge. It's hard to believe that it happened once. Maybe for many of you a 'suspicious goal' is letting someone score to an empty net or an own goal. But players know ways to concede a goal even so that no one will notice anything wrong about that. That betting player probably knew about set game from paper? Or TV? Or radio? The world of professional football isn't that big after all. I hope prosecutors will do their job from the start to an end and no one will be pushing them to leave it as it is. Now we should only sit and wait. The only thing I missed in this case was provocation and catching some people red-handed.
btw why do you find it necessary to comment on a league you have no connection to and don't watch? Does reading a few translated articles make you feel like an expert on the matter or the k-league in general? B/c it's rather annoying reading you project the problems of your polish league onto us.
He's probably footballchic2. Wearing his usual trenchcoat, smoking a cheap cigar while the ominous X-Files theme song blares in the background.
Someone from suwon tell me 최성국 was investigated by police a few days ago. So he is absent suwon VS Jeju 06월 18일 and maybe also 김두현. Is it true?
It's true, and apparently, he "proved" that he was not part of the scandal. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I still think something's fishy with the Little Maradona and I'd like to find out exactly how he "proved his innocence". And if I may change the subject just a little bit, I'd also like to find out why he's called "Little Maradona", I haven't seen him do anything extraordinary as of late. Other than missing easy goals.
최성국 has turned himself in. Useless piece of sh!t... http://www.usatoday.com/sports/soccer/2011-06-28-3556441528_x.htm I posted the English translation for you guys. It's all over the Korean news if you want more details...
I F*CKING KNEW IT. Innocent my ass, if there was ever a player during this season that played like an obvious match-fixer, it was him. ㅆㅂ 자식...
Was just about to post this too .. disappointing that someone who's been capped by the national team would resort to this. You can understand some low-paid scrub doing it, but a capped international? It'd be far more profitable to play hard and get a better contract than to take bribes. EDIT: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/sports/2011/06/136_89846.html Looks like he claims he wasn't involved and is only "volunteering information" .. and supposedly he told the club about this earlier but they ignored him.
Whos the suspected former NT goalie that theyre witchhunting now? any guesses? Kim BJ has been pardoned (as in never took a bribe) so is it KYK? Choi is cooked no doubt. Nothing he says relevant to his own involvment in the scandal now can be trusted. He was never going to be a serious NT member regardless. Always on the fringe and filler.
Love how he tries to escape his "Oh sh*t, did I just admit to committing a crime?" moment by saying "Nah guys, it's all cool, 'cause I just listened in on the plot, and didn't bother to report it for over a year!" POS Lee Woon-Jae? No way... o.0
It's not any of the three. I'm totally blanking on the name, but it was someone who doesn't have too many caps. I'll find out when I get to my home computer later tonight. I can't read Korean on my work computer and don't have the time to look for it on my phone...