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S Korea player kills self over match-fix scandal

(Agencies)
Updated: 2011-05-31 11:33

Former Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors player Jeong Jong-Kwan, file photo. [Photo/sports.qq.com]

K-League officials apologise for the scandal, May 30, 2011. [Photo/sports.qq.com]

SEOUL–A South Korean footballer suspected of involvement in a widening match-fixing scandal was found dead Monday in an apparent suicide, police said.

A hotel employee in southern Seoul found Jeong Jong-Kwan, a 29-year-old midfielder for third-division professional league team Seoul United, hanging in his room, police said.

The former Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors player had been missing since police said last week he was wanted for allegedly conveying money from match-fixing brokers to K-league players.

Police released what they said was a note left by the footballer, saying: "I'm ashamed to have been involved in match-fixing. All the players under investigation are my friends... I did it and it's all my responsibility."

Police last week arrested two suspected fixers on charges of bribing a goalkeeper and a midfielder to rig matches, along with two players for the Daejeon Citizen team.

On Sunday they said they had arrested another three of the team's players. They have not said whether they believe any other teams to be involved in the scandal.

Rumours abound about match-fixing in South Korea's professional football league. Newspapers say football clubs tend to hush up such scandals and 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.

K-League commissioner Chung Mong-Kyu apologised for the scandal Monday and vowed to hand out severe punishment to any players involved in match-fixing.

"It may be a painful process but we must eliminate anything that's detrimental to the fundamental spirit of football," he said.