[Anchor]
Recently, an embezzlement case involving around 8 billion won has been uncovered at the professional football club Gimpo FC. Consequently, concerns are growing over the poor management of municipal and provincial football clubs funded by taxpayer money. Now, allegations have been raised that subsidies were improperly used at Yeoju FC of the K3 League, prompting Gyeonggi Province to launch an audit.
This is an exclusive report by Reporter Hong Seok-jun.
[Reporter]
Yeoju FC, a third-tier league club, is a civic football club that received 1.84 billion won in subsidies from Yeoju City and Gyeonggi Province this year.
Lacking a clubhouse, the players have their meals twice a day at a local restaurant.
[Restaurant Employee: (Do the players come here often?) They come every day.]
However, according to transaction statements obtained by SBS, it was confirmed that meal expenses were charged for 35 servings every lunch and dinner, even though the actual number of diners was typically around 10.
Moreover, this restaurant was run by the family of A, the club's office manager.
An insider familiar with the club's situation claims that meal expenses paid to this restaurant alone amounted to about 120 million won annually, with tens of millions of won additionally paid under the pretext of dining expenses for team gatherings.
[Football Community Insider: The budget is leaking away continuously, and it is quite frustrating to see that money going to a specific individual.]
As for the background that made this so-called "inflated billing" possible, the long-standing close relationship between office manager A and club general manager B is being pointed out.
[Football Community Insider: (The office manager and the general manager) are both locals from Yeoju, and they have been senior and junior colleagues since they were young. The office manager would even die if the general manager told him to. He feels like the general manager's enforcer.]
General manager B is also facing allegations of failing to pay wages to a player undergoing rehabilitation.
[Former Yeoju FC Player: (The general manager said directly to me,) "Are you resting as you please? I haven't received anything from the coach (regarding your rehabilitation). Therefore, I cannot pay you your salary." Driven out by power trips, I even ended up retiring from football....]
General manager B told SBS, "Since we always prepared 35 servings, we paid for 35 servings regardless of the actual number of people eating," and claimed that the allegations of withholding wages are also untrue.
In response to this, Gyeonggi Province has launched an audit to check whether the subsidies were executed properly.
(Photo courtesy of Yang Du-won | Video by Park Gi-deok | Graphics by Kang Yoon-jung)
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