Son Woong-jung, father of South Korean football star Son Heung-min and director of Son Football Academy, holds a book signing event in Seoul on Jun. 26. (Yonhap)
Son Woong-jung, a football coach and father of Premier League star Son Heung-min, was ordered by a local court Friday to pay a fine over charges of abusing young players at his football training center.
The Chuncheon District Court in Chuncheon, some 75 kilometers northeast of Seoul, ordered Son Woong-jung, his son Son Heung-yun and another coach at Son Football Academy to each pay 3 million won (US$2,220) in fine. All three were also asked to complete 40 hours of child abuse treatment programs.
Son and the two other defendants may appeal the decision and ask for a trial within seven days.
The court's decision came about two months after Chuncheon prosecutors summarily indicted the three coaches.
They were accused of physically and verbally abusing young players at the senior Son's namesake football training facility.
The parents of one player reported Son and his staff to local police in March, and police forwarded the case to the prosecution the following month.
The parents claimed that their son sustained injuries to his thigh area that required two weeks of treatment after Son Heung-yun struck him with a corner flag during a training camp in Okinawa, Japan, in March.
The parents charged that Son Woong-jung hurled profanities at players for making mistakes during training sessions at the same Okinawa camp.
Son Woong-jung has countered that many of the charges levied against him and his staff are not true, and said he has not done anything that was not based on love for the players at the academy. (Yonhap)
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