Publications
Partners
Zurich - World governing body FIFA on Wednesday announced extended sanctions for 41 South Korean players following a 2011 match-fixing scandal in the domestic league.
Korea's K-League and the Korea Football Association's disciplinary committees agreed the sanctions and now FIFA's Disciplinary Committee has extended them worldwide.
Another 21 players who admitted their part in the match-fixing affair and also recanted will be allowed to return to the game after after a probation period of between two and five years.
But they will have to do football-related community service first, including coaching youngsters and disabled players.
The match-fixing scandal erupted in 2011 when some 50 players and coaches from six K-League sides were charged along with 11 criminal gang members and bookmakers with taking money to rig 15 games during 2010.
The scandal has led to two players and a former coach taking their own lives
In April of last year, former Suwon Samsung Bluewings midfielder Lee Kyung-Hwan, 24, killed himself while in May, Jeong Jong-Kwan, a 29-year-old midfielder with a third-division outfit, also committed suiceide as did Lee Soo-Cheol, a former coach of the military football club, found dead last October.
FIFA has extended the match-fixing sanctions on 41 players in South Korea to worldwide life bans.
The scandal goes back to 2011 when more than 50 players and coaches in the K-League were indicted for accepting money to fix matches.
Forty-one players received life bans from the K-League and the Korea Football Association.
FIFA said Wednesday that its disciplinary committee extended the sanctions to have worldwide effect.
However, FIFA said it would offer 21 players who admitted involvement in the scandal a chance to return to football.
Those players must go through a probation period of between two and five years, including community service ranging from 200 to 500 hours. Reinstatement after the probation would be up to the Korea Football Association.
