Former Coach Choi Tae-uk, Who Led Qatar to the Round of 16, Faces Trial for Alleged Player Recruitment Bribery

Choi Tae-wook, a former coach of the national football team who assisted head coach Paulo Bento during last year's Qatar World Cup and contributed to our national team's advancement to the round of 16, has been brought to trial on charges of providing money and valuables to professional club officials in exchange for player signings.

Choi Tae-wook, former coach of the national soccer team. Photo by Yonhap News

According to the legal community on the 13th, the Criminal Division 9 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Kim Hyun-ah) has indicted former coach Choi without detention on charges of breach of trust and bribery. Prosecutors state that Choi, in collusion with agent Choi Mo, is accused of giving kickbacks to former representative Lee Jong-geol and former coach Lim Jong-heon, who were working at the club at the time, while signing his prot?g? to Ansan Greeners FC.

The prosecution has collectively indicted 10 people, including former coach Choi, former representative Lee (not detained), and former coach Lim (detained). Former representative Lee is accused of receiving a total of 27 million KRW, including 10 million KRW in cash and luxury watches worth 17 million KRW, from agent Choi as a reward for signing two players between November last year and January this year. Former coach Lim is also accused of receiving 9 million KRW as a bribe for being officially appointed as head coach.

Former coach Lim is accused of receiving 45 million KRW from agent Choi as payment for player signings and defrauding a player's father of 60 million KRW by falsely promising to sign his son to the club. Agent Choi was arrested and indicted on charges of giving a total of 129 million KRW to five people, including former representative Lee, in exchange for player signings and other favors.

This case originally arose from a fraud case involving agent Choi. Jo Mo, a university football player, reported to the Seocho Police Station in 2020 that he was deceived by agent Choi, who demanded kickbacks during the process of signing with Daegu FC, a K League 1 club, in 2017, resulting in a loss of about 20 million KRW. The prosecution took over the case at the end of last year and confirmed the widespread malpractice, customs, and corruption prevalent in the football community.

The prosecution also stated that they have taken measures to confiscate the proceeds of the defendants' crimes and notified the Korea Football Association of the misconduct. They added, "We will make every effort to maintain the prosecution so that the defendants, who treat player trading as a custom, receive punishment commensurate with their crimes."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.