[Anchor]

The South Korean football community, which rarely has a quiet moment, has now been rocked by allegations of match-fixing instigation within the refereeing system. The allegations claim that a high-ranking official with the authority to assign referees instructed an on-field referee to make favorable calls for Busan, a club owned by former Korea Football Association President Chung Mong-gyu.

Reporter Lee Jeong-Chan has the story.

[Reporter]

Ahead of the regular league's final match between Busan and Chungbuk Cheongju in the 2023 professional football second division—a game with promotion to the top tier on the line—the referee assigned to the match received a call from a high-ranking official of the Referee Committee.

[High-ranking official of the Referee Committee: I'll give you a 2 million won bonus, so wrap it up well. You know how it should end, right? (Busan) must not be allowed to go to the playoffs.]

The official even suggested specific methods, effectively directing the referee to make calls favoring Busan, a win for which would secure automatic promotion to the first division.

[High-ranking official of the Referee Committee: Wouldn't it be easier if you just hit (their) two central defenders with yellow cards right from the start?]

The 2 million won matches the match fee for a promotion playoff head referee, leading to suspicions that match-fixing was instigated in exchange for the assignment.

In the actual match, Cheongju's two central defenders received yellow cards in the first half, but the game ended in a 1:1 draw. As a result, Busan was pushed to the playoffs and ultimately failed to achieve promotion.

As the Korea Football Association has launched an investigation, the individual at the center of the allegations told SBS over the phone, "It happened three years ago, so I don't remember."

Separately, in July of this year, a second division professional football referee was disciplined after it was revealed that they had asked a referee participating in a high school tournament to favor a specific team.

The Professional Football Referees Association issued a statement promising "reform" once again, but did not deny the allegations of match-fixing instigation.

(Video Editing: So Ji-hye, Design: Hwang Se-yeon, Source: Office of Rebuilding Korea Party Representative Kim Jae-won)