Prosecutors from Daegu said 13 other people were indicted for financed or offered bribes. The volleyball players are suspected of deliberately making mistakes when they received, tossed and spiked balls while the baseball pitchers allegedly intentionally allowed walks in the first innings.
The players took up to 4,450 dollars per game, according to the prosecution office statement. A total of 23 volleyball and baseball games in 2010 and 2011 were fixed, it said. Six of the indicated volleyballers are former or current players for the KEPCO45 team, while four others are currently with the military club Sangmu.
Last year, South Korea had to deal with a massive match fixing scandal that engulfed the domestic football league last year. Almost 80 people have been indicted over scandal. Government officials subsequently threatened to shut down the K-league _ Asia‘s oldest professional football league _ if any more games are fixed.
Culture Minister Choe Kwang-shik also promised a zero-tolerance “no mercy” policy on match fixing. Illegal gambling sites are the root of the problem in South Korea. These sites allow people to bet as much as 890 dollars, compared to 89 dollars in the country’s licensed sports lottery.
(아주경제 송지영 기자)
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com