Sport in South Korea so far this year has been mired in controversy, writes Andrew Farrell
In one sense, it hasn’t been a bad summer for sport in South Korea. The small city of Pyeong-chang, 180km east of Seoul, was recently awarded the rights to host the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, having been narrowly overlooked for 2010 and 2014. Thirty years after Seoul successfully staged the summer games, South Korea becomes just one of a select few countries who have had the privilege of hosting both Olympic events.
The following morning, all news outlets led with photos of a crying Kim Yu-na, the unofficial Queen of Korea and ambassador for the games, stood next to President Lee Myung-bak in Durban following the verdict. Kim is the reigning gold medallist for figure skating and she, like 50 million more Koreans, will get to see a vastly different country host the winter games from that of 1988. Back then the country was awakening from political dictatorship – 2018 will be about prosperity.
Staying with the Olympic theme, the national men’s soccer team is on course to qualify for the London games next year, which would earn South Korea their seventh successive appearance, and ninth in total. Moreover, striker Ji Dong-won is another local player setting sail for Europe, having signed with Premier League side Sunderland.
Meanwhile, a new franchise team has been created for the Korean Baseball Organisation (KBO). It is hoped the NC Dinos will join the big league in 2013 at the latest, in their spanking-new 25,000-seat stadium.
Attendances at baseball games continue to rise in spite of a washed-out summer. Last season, the KBO recorded its highest season total since the game turned professional. Now in its 30th season, the KBO is well on course to break last year’s record, helped by a competitive leaderboard that sees all the better-supported teams hovering around the play-offs.
But away from the high fives and back slapping, darkness fell over the country’s elite sports at the beginning of this summer. Baseball was rocked by the news in late May that well-known TV announcer Song Ji-seon had committed suicide after disclosing details of a romantic relationship with Im Tae-hoon, a pitcher from the Doosan Bears club.
Song had posted to her Cyworld account in early May that Im tried to force her into giving oral sex. After a media frenzy, she admitted having an 18-month relationship with Im, which he denied.
Song had been temporally suspended from her role on MBC when she committed suicide, having previously cited personal problems on Twitter. Im was subsequently sent to the minors, and hasn’t been back since.
Not to be undone, the national soccer league was then thrown into crisis following revelations of match-fixing that saw 11 players banned for life last month. Eight of the players were contracted to the Daejeon Citizens club.
It appears the key investigation centred on Daejeon’s 3-0 loss to Pohang Steelers on 6 April last. One player was said to have received $110,000, which was distributed among fellow conspirators in his team. All could face up to seven years in jail when the case hits the Korean courts.
The fall-out from the scandal saw hundreds of people involved in soccer giving oaths to ensure illegal activity is wiped out of the game permanently. But that matters little in the face of the latest news of prosecutors indicting an incredible 46 players on corruption charges, with at least eight different K-League matches confirmed to be rigged. An incredible seven per cent of all active players have now been linked to match-fixing.
One has to ask at this stage, how can things get any worse for Korean sport?
Andrew Farrell works as an English language teacher in Korea.
