It's getting rather messy in South Korea, the imaginatively named K-League has been infested with match-fixing and now the government is getting involved.
K-League faces shutdown threat over match-fixing scandal
SEOUL, Jun 30 (Reuters) - South Korea's government has threatened to "shut down" the country's professional soccer league after losing patience with an embarrassing match-fixing scandal, which is in danger of spiralling out of control.
Clubs whose players are found guilty of being involved in match-fixing have been warned they face expulsion from Korea's domestic competition, local media reported on Thursday.
"If K-League players are caught trying to throw matches from this July, their teams will be forced out of the league," Park Sun-kyoo, Vice Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism told South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
"We will also consider shutting down the K-League in the worst-case scenario."
I was quoted in an AFP article recently on this very subject...
Asia: Every match-fixer's dream destination
The players are short of money and unhappy. Perhaps they have big debts. Perhaps their careers, which once promised so much, are petering out into nothing.
Whatever the reason, they are easy prey for match-fixers, who are now so rampant they are believed to operate in nearly every Asian football league, from Singapore to South Korea and most countries in between.
"We're not talking about [Uefa] Champions League or the World Cup finals or anything like that," said Britain-based Scott Ferguson, a consultant to the betting industry.
"We're talking domestic-level games where they're on a fairly mediocre wage. When someone comes up and offers a couple of grand [thousand dollars] to do this, their ears prick up."
K-League faces shutdown threat over match-fixing scandal
SEOUL, Jun 30 (Reuters) - South Korea's government has threatened to "shut down" the country's professional soccer league after losing patience with an embarrassing match-fixing scandal, which is in danger of spiralling out of control.
Clubs whose players are found guilty of being involved in match-fixing have been warned they face expulsion from Korea's domestic competition, local media reported on Thursday.
"If K-League players are caught trying to throw matches from this July, their teams will be forced out of the league," Park Sun-kyoo, Vice Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism told South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
"We will also consider shutting down the K-League in the worst-case scenario."
I was quoted in an AFP article recently on this very subject...
Asia: Every match-fixer's dream destination
The players are short of money and unhappy. Perhaps they have big debts. Perhaps their careers, which once promised so much, are petering out into nothing.
Whatever the reason, they are easy prey for match-fixers, who are now so rampant they are believed to operate in nearly every Asian football league, from Singapore to South Korea and most countries in between.
"We're not talking about [Uefa] Champions League or the World Cup finals or anything like that," said Britain-based Scott Ferguson, a consultant to the betting industry.
"We're talking domestic-level games where they're on a fairly mediocre wage. When someone comes up and offers a couple of grand [thousand dollars] to do this, their ears prick up."
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