Goalkeeper arrested for match fixing didn't play wagered game: club

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SEOUL, May 27 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean football goalkeeper arrested over match-throwing charges actually didn't play in the game that a broker had paid him to fix and failed to get starters involved in the fixing scheme, the player's former club said Friday.
The goalkeeper is one of two professional players in the first-division K-League arrested this week over suspicions of receiving money from gambling brokers in exchange for deliberately making mistakes and letting their teams lose. Prosecutors believe gamblers made money by betting against the teams to which these players belonged.
But Gwangju FC, the team for which the goalkeeper played until being released last week, said the keeper didn't appear in the match on which a broker wagered.
Following its internal investigation, Gwangju FC said the goalkeeper received 100 million won (US$91,800) from a broker to help the team lose against Busan I'Park on April 6 during the K-League Cup, a tournament held on the sidelines of the K-League's regular season.
The team said the goalkeeper, a backup, was benched for that match after giving up five goals in his previous K-League Cup start against Gangwon FC. He had played against Gangwon with the No. 1 goalkeeper sidelined with a back injury, but the starter had recovered in time for the Busan game.
An official with Gwangju, requesting anonymity, said the arrested goalkeeper asked some of his teammates to help throw the match but was rejected.
Gwangju ended up losing the game 1-0, and the team said the goalkeeper returned money to the broker. The team and prosecutors said only about 10 million won was returned, and investigators are trying to find out where the rest of the 100 million won went.
Gwangju said the arrested keeper went on to play three more games in the K-League Cup, but there were no match-fixing offers on them.
Analysts say K-League Cup matches can be particularly vulnerable to match fixing because they don't receive nearly as much media attention as regular-season contests, and because teams are more likely to employ seldom-used players, who aren't highly paid and thus can be more tempted to take large sums of money from brokers.
A former national team player, Kim Dong-hyun of Sangju Sangmu Phoenix, has also been questioned in the widening probe into the first match-fixing scandal to hit the K-League. The league office said Thursday that it will ask relevant authorities to take its games off Sports Toto, the only licensed sports lottery in the country.
Later Friday, a veteran K-Leaguer said some of his teammates had received but rejected offers to get paid to throw matches.
Kim Byung-ji, a 41-year-old goalkeeper for Gyeongnam FC, said in a radio interview that some teammates told him last July that they'd received calls from brokers.
"I called a meeting with younger guys and told them to never get involved in match fixing," said Kim, the oldest player in K-League. "Two of my teammates, Kim Joo-young and Lee Yong-gi, made the right choice by rejecting such offers. And I heard later that several other players were also contacted and that they also turned away brokers."
Kim Byung-ji said he was aware of rumors that brokers have targeted young players with meager pay, especially defenders and goalkeepers, whose mistakes can be costly in the low-scoring sport of football.
jeeho@yna.co.kr