Football game fixing ring busted

By Lee Hyo-sik

A broker and a former football player were arrested for bribing current players to manipulate match outcomes in a scam to win sports lotteries, the prosecution said Wednesday.

The news comes as multiple rumors have long circulated that footballers and other professional athletes here colluded with brokers to rake in illegal gains through sports lotteries by fixing matches.

It is the first time that such a scam has come to light, sending shock waves through the local professional sporting world.

The Changwon District Prosecutors Office said investigators arrested a broker, identified only by his last name Kim, and a former football player, also surnamed Kim, on charges of bribing a midfielder of a professional football team and a goalkeeper of another team to have them fix match results so that they could win lotteries operated by Sports Toto.

The two players were also taken into custody on charges of attempting to fix match results in return for money. The midfielder received 100 million won ($90,000) and the goalie 120 million won, the prosecution said.

It said they targeted professional players receiving smaller paychecks and bribed them to fix matches. They then earned illicit profits by betting large amounts of money on games that the bribed athletes played in.

In one match, the corrupt goalkeeper allowed 11 goals. His football team lost 11 matches out of 12 when the goalie played. The bribed midfielder played in one match during the ongoing 2011 K-League season, in which his team lost.

“The whole story behind this incident has not been exposed because we are in the early stages of the investigation. The bribed football players and others suspected of being involved in the scam have not yet been questioned,” a prosecution official said.

A K-League official said he was aware of the prosecution’s probe into possible match-fixing scams early this month.