By Yi Whan-woo
Prosecutors have arrested three volleyball athletes, including two retired players, for allegedly rigging game results in return for money.
The Daegu District Prosecutors’ Office said they took three men into custody along with a middle man for involvement in the scam in four of the Korean Volleyball Federation (KOVO) league (V-League) matches in February 2010.
One of the two former V-League players is Yeom Soon-ho, a libero who quit the sport after last season with the team Suwon KEPCO 45.
The 29-year-old and his two teammates deliberately made mistakes in their plays so the middle man could win bets at a gambling website, investigators said. The players then collected their share of the cash.
The rigging follows the match fixing scandal in the professional football league last May when the prosecutors indicted dozens of footballers. The Korea Football Association, the country’s football governing body, took strict measures by banning a number of indicted players forever from Korean football.
Investigators said the KOVO held an educational session for the V-League players last June, as part of preemptive steps to prevent its players from copying the K-League.
The ruling body of volleyball said the organization will pay close attention to the probe before employing appropriate measures.
“It would be too early to say whether Yeom and the others are actually involved in the scam as the investigation is underway,” said Chang Kyung-min, a KOVO public relations official.
Chang said the rule of this sport, in which a six-man team is required to toss the ball over the other side of the net, is another reason to consider the outcome of the probe.
“While it’s rumored the players rigged the games to lose, one mistake does not directly lead to conceding a point as another teammate among the six can retrieve the ball,” he added.
Suwon KEPCO 45 also echoed KOVO’s views. “It’s very discouraging for us as the season is underway, but we should wait and see how things will turn out,” a club official said.
Ranking fourth in the seven-club league with 16 wins and nine losses as of Tuesday, the team is seeking to join the four-team playoffs.
Investigators said the scale of the latest match fixing scandal is smaller than the incident in the K-League.