Players, coaches sign pledge to root out corruption in football

(ATTN: ADDS more details in paras 9-13)
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea, June 1 (Yonhap) -- More than a thousand players, coaches, referees and officials of South Korea's top professional football league vowed on Wednesday to root out corrupt practices in their sport.
Wrapping up their two-day workshop here, about 180 kilometers east of Seoul, K-League representatives all signed a pledge to eliminate all illegal activities, including attempts to throw matches.



According to the league, signees vowed to never engage in any behavior that will affect the outcome of K-League games and to never accept offers from gambling brokers or sign up for gambling Web sites.
Also under the pledge, players vowed to cooperate with the league office if they are asked to provide information such as mobile phone call logs while under suspicion of attempting to throw matches.
The meeting was scheduled hastily earlier this week after five K-Leaguers were arrested on charges of accepting money from brokers and deliberately making mistakes to let their teams lose. One former K-Leaguer, Jeong Jong-kwan, was found dead Monday in an apparent suicide, having left a note claiming his involvement in match-fixing schemes.
A league official said every K-Leaguer signed the pledge except for those who reported to the national team training camp Tuesday to prepare for a friendly against Serbia this Friday and another against Ghana next Tuesday.
The official explained national team players will sign it after Tuesday.
"We received legal consultation on drafting the pledge," the official said. "Violators can face lifetime bans, but we will determine specific levels of punishment depending on the severity of breaches."
The K-League also said it will allow players to report themselves for any match-fixing involvement until June 13 in exchange for reduced punishment.
Ahn Gi-heon, secretary general of the K-League, said this would be "a plea bargain of sort."
"Players can report directly to me," Ahn said. "We will provide more information on the league homepage."
Ahn also said clubs whose players are found to have engaged in match throwing and other illegal activities will be punished, even if they weren't aware of problems.
"We've all agreed that team general managers, head coaches and the rest of the leadership should be severely disciplined in cases of match fixing," the secretary general said. "Punishments could include taking off points from standings or forcing them to play home games without fans in the seats."
Earlier Wednesday, the country's governing body of football said it will launch a new committee to work on rooting out corruption in the sport.
The Korea Football Association (KFA) said the committee will be made up of officials from the KFA, K-League, the Ministry of Justice and federations for amateur football, plus Sports Toto, the operator of the only licensed sports lottery in South Korea.
Two gambling brokers who were arrested along with players allegedly made huge sums of money through Sports Toto tickets.
The committee will also work with cyber police units to control illegal online gambling sites, the KFA said.