The prosecution investigating allegations of kickbacks exchanged in return for accepting players at professional football clubs has begun securing custody of former coaches of professional and university football teams.
According to the legal community on the 6th, the Criminal Division 9 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Kim Hyun-ah) filed an arrest warrant the previous day against former coach Lim Jong-heon of Ansan Greeners, a K League 2 team in the second division of professional football, on charges of breach of trust and fraud. An arrest warrant was also filed against agent Choi, who provided money to former coach Lim, on charges including mediation of breach of trust.
A prosecution official explained the background of the arrest warrant request, stating, "This is a structural corruption caused by collusion between football team coaches and agents, which undermines fair competition and has significant social repercussions. The matter is serious, and there is also concern about evidence tampering."
Former coach Lim is accused of receiving 40 million won from Choi in exchange for selecting two Korean players while working as the coach of Thailand Navy FC from 2018 to 2019. He is also accused of defrauding one player of 60 million won by falsely promising to secure professional contracts.
Choi is under investigation for giving 20 million won to coach Shin of professional team A and 7 million won to coach Kim of university team B, along with requests to secure professional team contracts, in addition to former coach Lim. He is also accused of defrauding one player of 20 million won by falsely promising to secure a professional contract. The total amount Choi gave to football coaches and others in exchange for requests for professional team admissions from 2018 to 2021 is 67 million won.
The prosecution also detected that former Yonsei University football team coach Shin received 60 million won from Choi in 2017?2018 as payment for facilitating the admission of three players to professional teams, and filed an arrest warrant together.
However, Choi’s mediation of breach of trust charges related to this case were not included due to the statute of limitations having expired.
It is understood that a total of six to seven players were victims involved in this case. While investigating Choi’s fraud charges transferred from the police, the prosecution detected evidence of former coach Lim’s acceptance of money and launched a forced investigation last month, including raids on residences.
Former coach Lim is known to deny the charges, claiming that the money sent by players’ parents as gratuities to the Thai club or local agents flowed to him.
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