Former national team coach indicted in cash for contracts scandal

Ten Korean football officials, including former national team assistant coach Choi Tae-uk, were indicted Wednesday for allegedly receiving bribes to secure player signings.

Former Korean national team assitant coach Choi Tae-uk, left, and former Ansan Greeners manager Lim Jong-heon [YONHAP]

Ten Korean football officials, including former national team assistant coach Choi Tae-uk, former Ansan Greeners manager Lim Jong-heon and former Greeners President Lee Jong-geol, were indicted Wednesday on bribery charges.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office indicted Lim and an agent surnamed Choi, who are being detained. Choi Tae-uk, Lee and six other officials were also indicted, but without detention.

Choi Tae-uk is a former footballer turned coach. He was a member of the 2002 World Cup squad and served as a national team assistant coach from 2018 through 2022 under former national team manager Paulo Bento.

He is accused of working with the agent surnamed Choi to bribe Lim and Lee 20 million won ($15,000) to ensure that the team signed a football player who had a connection with Choi Tae-uk. The football player involved in the incident has not been named.

Lee also allegedly received a Mercedes-Benz car worth 50 million won, a Rolex watch and 27 million in cash from agent Choi and the parents of two separate players in exchange for ensuring they were picked up by the club, according to the prosecution.

Lee is also accused of receiving a bribe of 9 million won to appointment Lim as manager.

Former Ansan Greeners President Lee Jong-geol [NEWS1]

Lim was separately indicted in July for receiving 45 million won from agent Choi in return for the admission of another player, in addition to defrauding a footballer’s father of 60 million won in bribes paid to get his son on to a professional team.

Agent Choi’s suspected involvement in handing bribes does not stop there.

Choi also allegedly handed a former university football team manager 60 million won to help players join professional teams from 2017 to 2018, before giving a former professional team assistant coach surnamed Shin 20 million won to ensure another player was signed.

According to prosecutors, Choi is suspected of having handed over a total of 129 million won in bribes to multiple officials.

“We have discovered a chronic disease at the heart of Korean professional football where clubs and university officials treat it as standard practice to receive bribes disguised as development funds and personnel expenses,” the prosecution said on Wednesday. “We will recover the money that was received in bribes and have informed the Korean Football Association (KFA) of the scale of the problem."

The KFA removed Choi Tae-uk from its Technology Research Group on Wednesday after the indictments were announced and said that it will consider imposing further punishment on him based on the verdict and its own investigation.

The prosecution hinted that bribery in professional Korean football could run much deeper than the 10 indictments on Wednesday, with an official pointing out that only 3.7 percent of Korean footballers ever reach a professional team, opening the door for intense competition and possibly further illegal acts.

Increasing the transparency of player recruitment is an option, with Ansan Mayor Lee Min-geun promising last month to increase transparency when president Lee was under investigation.

That Ansan mayor said that he will form a new player selection committee with external officials testing player abilities to eradicate any scandals involving player selection.

The Greeners are a K League 2 side that sit in 12th place on the 13-team table as of Thursday. They have never played in the first division.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]