In July last year, prosecutors indicted 37 football players on charges of fixing matches in the nation’s top professional football league. The associations of other sports should have learned a lesson from the scandal, but they did not. Now they are paying the price.

Allegations have been made that professional baseball players were involved in match fixing. Prosecutors, who are looking into the cases, have reportedly obtained testimony confirming the scandal. The teams whose players are suspected of the crime are urged to conduct their own inquiries and share information with the prosecutors.

The criminal investigation into baseball match fixing follows the recent arrest of three players of a professional volleyball team. Prosecutors are expanding their investigations to other volleyball teams. They are also looking into alleged match fixing by professional basketball players.

It is not just the individual professional sports that are being shaken by match-fixing scandals. The crisis is engulfing the whole of Korea’s professional sports world, as match fixing is toppling one of the pillars of sportsmanship ― fair competition.

It is time for leaders of the sports community to pull their wisdom to keep professional players away from the temptation to fix matches for money. Examples galore show what impact match fixing has had on the sports involved. Should the sports community fail to take drastic action against match fixing, it would be a matter of time before fans desert the sports.

Sports betting is illegal in Korea. But the market is prosperous, with the size of annual wagers estimated to range from 3.4 trillion won to 3.7 trillion won. Moreover, access to sports betting is made easier by the use of mobile phones. According to a news report, there are more than 1,000 sites that can be accessed with the use of mobile phones.

Law-enforcement agencies are called on to expand their efforts to prevent sports betting. Relevant laws will have to be revised if it is deemed necessary in the fight against match fixing. As the cases show, it has already reached an intolerable level.

True, it is easier said than done to bring brokers and suspect players to justice, with servers for many of the betting sites kept in foreign countries, including China. But law-enforcement agencies should not be deterred by the difficulty. Instead, they will have to seek assistance from their foreign counterparts in conducting investigations.