The city of Ansan is stepping up to normalize its soccer team. As allegations of organized collusion by key figures in the club, including the agent, CEO, and head of the power enhancement team, have surfaced, the city is launching an audit to reconstitute the club at the level of dissolution.
On the 11th, multiple officials familiar with the situation in Ansan said, “Ansan City will start auditing the soccer team in early September. On the 10th, Ansan City requested the club’s audit data for the previous three years.”
The Ansan Greeners of the K League 2 (second division) began to run aground in early June. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office’s Criminal Division 9 detained former head coach Lim Jong-heon, raided former CEO Lee Jong-gul and head of the strategy and reinforcement team Bae, and requested an arrest warrant while investigating agent Choi, who was accused of fraud by former professional soccer player Jeon, for paying players he managed to join professional teams. The detention was dismissed, but prosecution is inevitable due to the collusion.
According to prosecutors, Lee is suspected of taking a total of 27 million won, including 10 million won in cash and a luxury watch worth 17 million won, from agent Choi in exchange for signing two players to Ansan between November last year and January this year. Bae’s charge is that he received 30 million won in cash from Choi on three occasions from August last year to February this year, when he was in charge of the club’s scouting work, in exchange for signing the players.
Yonhap News Agency
Initially, Ansan City said that it would launch an audit after observing the results of the prosecution’s investigation. However, following a series of public reports that the current allegations are the “tip of the iceberg,” Ansan City is planning to launch its own audit, believing that there may be more organized collusion. If the audit is properly conducted and reveals other crimes, the answer that Lee gave to the court on the 7th of this month when he was asked “Was there any organized collusion at the club level regarding the selection of players” during the substantive examination of the arrest warrant will be false.
Ansan City is reportedly planning to conduct a comprehensive audit, including players recruited in the past three years and backroom contracts for youth players. 먹튀검증