CNN
—
South Korean soccer star Son Jun-ho has been arrested in China for allegedly accepting bribes as Beijing clamps down on alleged corruption within the higher ranks of Chinese language soccer.
Son was detained by public safety authorities in China’s northeast Liaoning province on Friday “on suspicion of taking bribes as an individual who shouldn’t be a functionary of a state organ,” China’s Overseas Affairs Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin stated Tuesday.
Son is a midfielder for Shandong Taishan, a soccer membership within the Chinese language Tremendous League (CSL), which received the 2021 league title and 2021 Chinese language Soccer Affiliation Cup. He’s additionally a member of South Korea’s males’s nationwide workforce and was a part of the squad that superior to the knockout stage of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
A South Korean Overseas Ministry spokesperson stated Tuesday the ministry was conscious of Son’s scenario and that native Korean diplomatic missions had been offering consular help. The spokesperson wouldn’t present additional data as a result of Private Info Safety Act.
Wang stated China would supply South Korean officers with the “vital facilitation” to carry out their consular duties.
The Korea Soccer Affiliation (KFA) stated it had written to the Chinese language Soccer Affiliation and the Asian Soccer Confederation relating to the participant on Tuesday however had not but heard again. Vice President Kim Jeong-bae was checking on Son’s situation with the South Korean Overseas and Sports activities Ministries, a KFA official advised CNN.
Son is the primary overseas soccer participant to be investigated and detained for the reason that CSL began in 2004, in keeping with China’s state-run International Occasions.
His arrest is a part of a broader initiative by Beijing to rid Chinese language soccer of alleged corruption within the highest ranges of the game.
The Communist Social gathering’s anti-graft watchdog has been investigating a bunch of Chinese language Soccer Affiliation figures.
They embrace former president Chen Xuyuan, former vice-president Yu Hongchen, former head coach Li Tie, former secretary-general Liu Yi, former CSL common supervisor Dong Zheng, and former CFA disciplinary committee head Wang Xiaoping.
Shandong Taishan’s former head coach Hao Wei can also be being investigated over allegations of match-fixing, International Occasions reported. On Tuesday, Shandong Taishan employed South Korean Choi Kang-hee to switch Hao as head coach.
Mark Dreyer, a Beijing-based Chinese language soccer skilled and writer of “Sporting Superpower,” a ebook about China’s sporting ambitions, advised CNN that Son’s arrest displays the state of Chinese language soccer which is “not in a great place, in any respect.”
“The league hasn’t been in as dangerous a state for not less than a decade,” Dreyer stated. “It was solely six years or so in the past when Premier League managers had been speaking in regards to the Chinese language league being a menace with its monetary muscle.
“The pattern on the time was China actually may rival a few of the prime leagues of the world. We’re miles away from that now, gentle years.”
