South Korea’s football governing body announced on Wednesday that it will set up a special committee to prevent match-fixing.
Korea Football Association said in a statement that it will establish an emergency committee of representatives from the KFA, the Ministry of Justice and all the professional and amateur leagues here, including the K-League.
The decision came as the country’s top division league is facing an unprecedented match-rigging scandal involving at least 10 active players.
The committee will now look into the case and explore the possible punishment for the players involved, and also solutions to root out match-rigging attempts, the KFA said. The emergency committee will later be transformed into an anti-corruption unit under the governing body, the statement added.
Meanwhile, the K-League players signed a written agreement on Wednesday, pledging to cooperate with the probe into the alleged match fixing.
The K-League body convened a two-day workshop with all players, staffs and officials from the 16 member teams attending to discuss ways to prevent match-fixing and illegal betting in the league.
The players promised to provide all the necessary information, including their bank transaction records and phone records, to help with the investigation.
In the week since the match-fixing case was first revealed, five players have been arrested on charges of receiving bribe money and attempting to fix their games. Two gambling brokers, including a former midfielder, have also been arrested.
Former K-League player Jeong Jong-kwan, who was allegedly linked with the suspects, was found dead on Monday in an apparent suicide. He left a note confessing his involvement in the match-fixing scandal.
Chung Mong-gyu, the president of K-League, admitted that the league is facing the “worst crisis” in its history. Chung said, however, he believes the K-League will emerge stronger from the crisis if it can root out the problem.
By Oh Kyu-wook (
596story@heraldcorp.com)