S.Korea expands football match-fixing probe

Posted Friday, June 03, 2011 by YAHOO Sport

SEOUL (AFP) - South Korean prosecutors said Friday they have charged two suspected gambling brokers as part of a widening probe into football match-fixing.

Five players in the professional K-League have also been arrested and a sixth committed suicide in the growing scandal.

The two alleged fixers purchased sports lottery tickets and paid two players to fix games last month in order to win large sums, prosecutors in the southeastern city of Changwon were quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying.

They allegedly handed 100 million won ($91,716) to a goalkeeper and 120 million won to a midfielder in return for rigging a tournament. Both players have been arrested.

The goalkeeper appeared in four games between March 16 and May 11 and let in a total of 11 goals, his team lost three out of the four matches.

The midfielder played in one game and committed four fouls before being replaced after a break. His team lost that game.

Apart from this year's alleged frauds, one of the two fixers is also suspected to have made a huge sum from betting on K-League games last year, Yonhap said.

He reportedly won some 200 million won ($185,200).

Rumours abound about match-fixing in the country's pro football league. Newspapers said football clubs, who tend to hush up such scandals, have been silently expelling players implicated in match-rigging since last year.

Players are exposed to growing temptation because the country's illicit online gambling sites, many of them operated by crime rings in South Korea and China, have been growing exponentially, news reports said.