Son Jun-ho, a member of the Qatar World Cup round of 16, has been arrested by Chinese police and has been under investigation for five days. The Chinese government officially confirmed the fact that Son Jun-ho was detained today (16th), and stated that the charge was ‘non-state espionage bribery’. In China, bribery is a serious crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison or life imprisonment depending on the amount of money received. Chinese media are reporting that it is related to the investigation of Son Jun-ho’s team, Shandong Taishan. This is because Jin Jingdao, a Korean-Chinese player of the same team, was arrested earlier, and coach Hao Wei, who is suspected of match-fixing, disappeared.
Recently, the Chinese soccer world is suffering from various corruptions such as match fixing. Suspicion of match-fixing in a youth soccer tournament that surfaced last year turned out to be true, and former Chinese national soccer team coach Li Jie was also arrested on charges of match-fixing. Subsequently, about 10 Chinese football giants, including the chairman of the Chinese Football Association and the head of the Super League Association, were involved in various corruptions and fell off the horse.
It is now approaching 10 years since President Xi Jinping shouted, ‘Football to rise’. A series of incidents tell us the current state of Chinese football, which has lagged behind the world flow. The current situation of Chinese soccer, where the wind blows due to the match-fixing incident, was summarized in .