By Lee Hyo-sik
Prosecutors said Thursday that a total of 63 players and brokers have either been, or will be, indicted for their alleged roles in a scam to manipulate the outcome of football matches they had bet on.
They will indict 37 former and incumbent K-League football players, and 11 brokers and fundraisers on charges of violating the National Sports Promotion Act, while putting six individuals on the wanted list.
Military prosecutors have indicted nine footballers playing for the Korea Armed Forces Athletic Corps, including Kim Dong-hyun and Choi Sung-kuk.
Among others, Kim was found to have actively taken part in match fixing in eight games and reaped illegal gains of more than 400 million won ($370,000) by betting on manipulated games.
The Changwon District Prosecutors’ Office said investigators will continue to look into other football matches held last year and this year to check whether more footballers were involved in the scheme.
“A player could receive up to 31 million won, depending on how deeply they were involved in the match-fixing scam. Brokers targeted mostly goalkeepers, defenders and midfielders,” a prosecution official said.
He said at least 15 K-league games were tainted by the scam over the past five months, adding that it was much more widespread and extensive than previously thought.
“Not only footballers of the second-tier league, but also national team members and key players of first-tier football clubs were involved in the illicit scheme. The K-League’s policy to encourage players to voluntarily report match fixing has helped us detect more cases,” the official said.
About 20 footballers have admitted through the K-League that they were involved in the illicit scam. In return for their cooperation, the prosecution indicted them without physical detention.
“Our investigation is still ongoing as we look into more games for irregularities. We will root out match fixing from professional sports,” he said, hinting that more players and brokers will likely be brought to book in the near future.
On June, 9, the Changwon office announced preliminary investigation results that indicted nine footballers and two brokers.