Yonsei and Korea Universities put their pride on the line during their sports competition. The picture shows Korea University’s students rooting for their team in their annual varsity game against Yonsei. / Korea Times |
By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
The head coach of a university soccer team was arrested Thursday for bribing referees. Ten referees registered with the Korea Football Association and two parents of college soccer players were also caught for being involved. Meanwhile, two college soccer players were arrested on the same day for rape.
According to police, the 42-year-old head coach of Korea University's soccer team paid out more than 23 million won ($20,300) in bribes to 10 referees between 2008 and 2009, asking them to judge in favor of his team in matches against its rival Yonsei University and other strong teams.
Police added Kim collected nearly 580 million won from players' parents and used 170 million won of it for personal purposes.
"He has admitted he paid money to the referees and embezzled some money, but insists it had nothing to do with games," said a police officer familiar with the case. "The referees also strongly deny allegation that they officiated unfairly."
But police believe games judged by the suspicious referees are not officiated fairly. Korea University won in all nine matches judged by suspicious referees, police said.
"When Korea University led a match, the referees ignored apparent fouls by the school's players, while issuing the opposing players minor fouls," the officer said. "Some of the coaches of rival teams were even forced to leave the venue for complaining against the calls."
Meanwhile, two soccer players of Kyunggi University in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, were arrested for rape, police said. The school is seriously considering disbanding its soccer team to take responsibility for the crime, a school spokesman said.
Following the arrest, the head coach of the team cancelled the remainder of the schedule for this year. "I cannot believe they committed such a heinous crime," he said.
A school spokesman said, "The coach is in talks with executives of the school over the disbandment of the team. But it's not an easy task since we have the other 24 other players to consider."
The Korea Football Association said, "If the team is disbanded, the remainder of the schedule will go ahead as planned without the team."
It is widely believed that school sports are not fully clean, not just of bribes some coaches are taking but also corporal punishment of student athletes.
The government is now trying to have schools go easy on their competition-oriented sports programs, instead adopting a system that student athletes will have to take education and show a certain level of academic achievement in order to stay in the program.
pss@koreatimes.co.kr
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