FIFA Extends South Korean Match Fixing Bans

Soccer’s world governing body, FIFA has extended the match-fixing sanctions on 41 players in South Korea to worldwide lifetime bans.

The players were suspended by the K-League and Football Association following an investigation dating back to the summer of 2011 when more than 50 players and coaches in the K-League were indicted for accepting money to fix matches.

A FIFA statement read: “All 41 players have been sanctioned with a lifetime ban from all football activity by the K-League and the Korea Football Association’s disciplinary committees. The FIFA Disciplinary Committee has extended the sanctions to have worldwide effect.”

Around half the players involved have, however, been offered hope of one day returning to football after coming forward during a voluntary reporting period.

The statement continued: “However, 21 players who turned themselves in during the voluntary reporting period, expressing their grave regret about their involvement in match-fixing, have been offered the possibility of returning to football after a probation period of between two and five years. This includes carrying out periods of community service ranging from 200 to 500 hours.”

The voluntary probation period would require a player to inform the K-League of his wish to return to football, and then commit himself to a community service involving coaching for local clubs, support for disability football or support for anti-match-fixing activities.

Also FIFA revealed that their FIFA’s Committee for Club Football discussed the Global Player Exchange (GPX) concept on Tuesday which will have an effect on player transfers, currently being developed by FIFA TMS.

The GPX platform will provide a secure and private service through which subscribing clubs will be able to access market information and interact with each other. The new service will also allow clubs to search for information on players, including their availability. Extensive stakeholder consultation has shown that most clubs have limited resources for accessing information on the professional player pool and often have to rely on intermediaries, thus increasing club costs. FIFATMS is currently planning the implementation of GPX with multiple stakeholders, including clubs and member associations.

“This will revolutionise the international and national transfer system,” explained chairman Jacques Anouma.