A former national football team forward became the latest to turn himself in to top football authorities for ties to match fixing schemes, the nation’s first-division league announced Wednesday.
Choi Sung-kuk, currently with the Suwon Samsung Bluewings, came clean on Tuesday and the case is now in the hands of prosecutors, an official with K-League said.
Choi is the second known case to report himself to K-League in the widening match fixing scandal, which broke out last month and has already seen 11 active K-Leaguers indicted by the public and the military prosecution. Last weekend, a former national team goalkeeper, whose name was withheld, came clean about his involvement. The players are suspected of accepting cash from gambling brokers in exchange for deliberating making mistakes.
Choi Sung-kuk. (Yonhap News)
Choi, 28, is by far the highest-profile player to be implicated in match fixing. He has appeared in 26 international matches and has two goals to his credit. He has also starred on under-19 and under-23 national teams.
In late May, at an emergency league seminar on match fixing prevention, Choi held a press conference to deny rumors of his involvement. Choi had said, “If I had done anything wrong, I would’ve been summoned to the prosecution, and not here talking with you.”
According to the league official, Kim Dong-hyun, one of the indicted players, dragged Choi into the scheme. The official said Choi met with Kim and other players last June to plot match throwing attempts. Kim allegedly offered Choi cash for his role but Choi denied taking the money, the official said.
Players have until the end of this month to turn themselves in for lenient penalties from the league. K-League has said it would also ask prosecutors to reduce punishments for such players.
Earlier prosecutors in Changwon, about 400 kilometers southeast of Seoul, arrested five other K-Leaguers in the scandal, the first of its kind to rock K-League in its 28-year history.
(Yonhap News)