South Korean prosecutors said yesterday they have charged two suspected gambling brokers as part of a widening probe into soccer match-fixing.
Five players in the professional K-League have also been arrested and a sixth committed suicide in the growing scandal.
The two alleged fixers purchased sports lottery tickets and paid two players to fix games last month in order to win large sums, prosecutors in the southeastern city of Changwon were quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying.
They allegedly handed 100 million won (US$91,716) to a goalkeeper and 120 million won to a midfielder in return for rigging a tournament. Both players have been arrested.
The goalkeeper appeared in four games between March 16 and May 11 and let in a total of 11 goals, his team losing three out of the four matches.
The midfielder played in one game and committed four fouls before being replaced after a break. His team lost that game.
Apart from this year’s alleged frauds, one of the two fixers is also suspected to have made a huge sum from betting on K-League games last year, Yonhap said.
He reportedly won about 200 million won.
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