.jpg) Park Sun-kyoo, vice minister for culture, sports and tourism, explains measures to cope with a match fixing scandal during a press conference at the ministry, Tuesday. / Yonhap |
By Yoon Chul
The government said Tuesday that any local sports organizations involved in match fixing scandals will be suspended or taken off the national sports lottery.
Park Sun-kyoo, vice minister of culture, sports and tourism, said that in order to eradicate match fixing in sport the ministry will revise laws on national sports promotion. This will include the removal of relevant games from Sports Toto, the lone legal sports betting organization in Korea. Also the leagues could see their share of the profits from Sports Toto halted.
“Match fixing is a mortally unfair act that can never be accepted under any circumstances. No matter how painful the process will be, we will try to resolve all the problems,” Park said during a press conference at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
So far clubs have received a percentage of profits from sports betting.
According to a K-League official, the profits made from bets on the 2010 season to be shared between the Korea Football Association and K-League will be 31 billion won. The latter is likely to receive about 14 billion won.
“The funds which the K-League teams acquire from Sports Toto are not used to operate the clubs,” the K-League official said.
Five K-League players have been arrested for allegedly taking money from gambling brokers in exchange for making mistakes and helping their teams lose matches.
Seoul United midfielder Jeong Jong-kwan was found dead at a hotel in the nation’s capital with a note saying “I am ashamed to have been part of match fixing.”
The match fixing investigation is ongoing and the prosecutors have reportedly questioned other players and coaches over further possible match fixing schemes.
The five suspected players are likely to be named this week.
Park said any coaches or players involved in match fixing will be given lifetime bans and their clubs will be docked points.
He also added that revised rules will apply to other major sports in the country, covering baseball, football, volleyball, basketball and golf.
“We all feel that this is clearly a crisis (for sports in South Korea),” Park said. “We will try to use this occasion to start anew and take the next step.”
The government also plans to strengthen punishment of those taking part in illegal sports betting.
Those engaging in it could be sentenced to seven years in prison or fined up to 70 million won.
Currently offenders can be punished with up to three years in jail or a maximum 15 million won fine.
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