Son Jun-ho, a South Korean soccer player, has been detained in China for allegedly accepting bribes as Beijing cracks down on alleged corruption in Chinese football‘s higher echelons.
Son was arrested by public security officials in Liaoning province, in northeastern China, on Friday “on suspicion of taking bribes as a person who is not a functionary of a state organ,” according to Wang Wenbin, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry.
Son plays midfield for Shandong Taishan, a Chinese Super League (CSL) football team that won the league championship and Chinese Football Association Cup in 2021. He is a part of the South Korean men’s national team and the group that qualified for the round of 16 at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
A South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Tuesday the ministry was aware of Son’s situation and that local Korean diplomatic missions were providing consular assistance. The spokesperson would not provide further information due to the Personal Information Protection Act.
Wang said China would provide South Korean officials with the “necessary facilitation” to perform their consular duties.
The Korea Football Association (KFA) said it had written to the Chinese Football Association and the Asian Football Confederation regarding the player on Tuesday but had not yet heard back. Vice President Kim Jeong-bae was checking on Son’s condition with the South Korean Foreign and Sports Ministries, a KFA official told CNN.
Son is the first foreign soccer player to be investigated and detained since the CSL started in 2004, according to China’s state-run Global Times.
His arrest is part of a broader initiative by Beijing torid Chinese soccer of alleged corruption in the highest levels of the sport.
The Communist Party’s anti-graft watchdog has been investigating a host of Chinese Football Association figures.
They include former president Chen Xuyuan, former vice-president Yu Hongchen, former head coach Li Tie, former secretary-general Liu Yi, former CSL general manager Dong Zheng,and former CFA disciplinary committee head Wang Xiaoping.
Shandong Taishan’s former head coach Hao Wei is also being investigated over allegations of match-fixing, Global Times reported. On Tuesday, Shandong Taishan hired South Korean Choi Kang-hee to replace Hao as head coach.
Mark Dreyer, a Beijing-based Chinese soccer expert and author of “Sporting Superpower,” a book about China’s sporting ambitions, told CNN that Son’s arrest reflects the state of Chinese soccer which is “not in a good place, at all.”
“The league hasn’t been in as bad a state for at least a decade,” Dreyer said. “It was only six years or so ago when Premier League managers were talking about the Chinese league being a threat with its financial muscle.
“The trend at the time was China really could rival some of the top leagues of the world. We’re miles away from that now, light years.”