Will Son Joon-ho, who shed tears at the press conference but only raised questions, play in the game.
Among the three K-League 1 round matches scheduled for September 14, Suwon FC and Jeonbuk Hyundai are drawing the most attention. However, it is not because it is a match between Gangwon FC, Suwon FC, which are fiercely chasing after Ulsan HD, and Jeonbuk FC, which is expected to escape from the relegation zone, but because Suwon FC midfielder Son Joon-ho is drawing keen attention.
The Chinese Football Association issued an official letter on the 10th (Korea Standard Time) stating that Son Joon-ho was permanently expelled from China for manipulating the match.
The Chinese Football Association claimed that Son Joon-ho violated and lost sportsmanship by taking fraudulent transactions, manipulating soccer matches, and illegal profits in order to promote unfair profits. This is the first time that information related to Son Joon-ho’s alleged match-fixing has been officially disclosed.
Soon before returning to Korea in May last year when he was playing for Shandong Taishan in the Chinese Super League, Son was questioned for about 10 months after being arrested by Chinese police at Hongqiao Airport in Shanghai for “crime of accepting non-state agents.” Son Joon-ho was also caught up as the newly appointed head of the Chinese Football Association was investigating those involved, calling for eradicating corruption in the Chinese soccer community.
Son Jun-ho’s side strongly denied the allegation of participating in match fixing when Son Jun-ho was detained, explaining that he was under investigation for bribery charges. When the criminal detention period expired in June last year, Son Jun-ho was converted to an arrest investigation and continued the investigation.
The Korea Football Association also sent an official letter to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the Chinese Football Association regarding Son’s detention to ask for cooperation, but ended up in vain. Lawyers and high-ranking officials were dispatched to the country to help Son, but due to lack of proper meetings with Son, he returned home early. Above all, he expressed frustration, saying, “I came back to Korea without any results because the Chinese side did not provide any information.” 메이저사이트
It was on March 25 that Son Joon-ho was released. He was issued an International Transfer Agreement (ITC) by the Chinese Football Association, and after review by the Korean Football Association, he registered with the K5 League’s Qianlong FC and returned to the domestic stage. Since then, he has raised his body while training with his former team, Jeonbuk Hyundai, and received attention from a number of clubs, but he wore the K League 1 Suwon FC uniform last June.
Back then, there were speculations that Suwon FC was taking a big risk when it recruited Son. However, Choi Soon-ho, head of Suwon FC who coached Son for the Pohang Steelers in the past, said, “The risk towards Son Joon-ho will not be a big issue.”
After returning to the K-League through Suwon FC, Son Joon-ho showed good adaptation to the new team, scoring in a game against Ulsan HD last month, but the “Son Joon-ho risk” still existed.
When announcing the list ahead of the first and second rounds of the third Asian qualifying round for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North Korea and the U.S., Hong Myung-bo, the coach of the Korean national soccer team, said on Monday, “We are keeping an eye on Son,” adding, “There are still some areas that are not clear (about China). We need to contact the Chinese Football Association to proceed. There were risks related to this.”
About two weeks after the risk related to Son Joon-ho was mentioned in Hong’s mouth, the Chinese Football Association issued a disciplinary action against Son Joon-ho to be permanently expelled.
In addition, the Chinese Football Association said it would expand Son’s disciplinary scope to the world, not just China.
The Chinese Football Association said, “At this point, the disciplinary action is prohibited only within Chinese soccer. However, we will officially challenge FIFA and expand Son’s punishment globally.”
If FIFA admits Son Joon-ho’s allegations and increases the scope of disciplinary action imposed on him by the Chinese Football Association to the world, Son Jun-ho will no longer be able to play soccer.
Son Joon-ho held a press conference immediately on the 11th, expressing his embarrassment at the sudden news.
Son Joon-ho, who was in charge of the event, came out of the press conference and opened his mouth in tears, but there was no clear explanation or clear evidence. What remained after the press conference was rather more questionable.
Son Joon-ho said he had a close relationship with Jin Jing-dao (Korean name Kim Kyung-do), a Korean-Chinese player who was close to playing in Shandong, by frequently exchanging money and gifts with each other, adding that he did not remember the reason why the deposit was made from Jin Jing-dao a few days after the match between Shandong and Shanghai Haigang in January last year, which China pointed out as a match-fixing match.
Son Joon-ho said he never admitted to fixing the match, and that all he did was falsely confess to bribery charges made by the police amid a coercive atmosphere of investigation.
However, Son Joon-ho’s side strongly denied the announcement by the Chinese Football Association, but raised questions by failing to provide clear evidence. Son Joon-ho, who said he has not yet received the ruling, only replied, “I will discuss it with a Chinese lawyer,” when asked if he would like to read it and disclose it later.
The Korea Football Association said on the 12th that it received an official letter from the Chinese Football Association informing FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) of the permanent expulsion imposed on Son Joon-ho.
According to the regulations of the Korea Professional Football Federation, Son Joon-ho has no problem playing. However, this can be a clue that affects his participation as Son Joon-ho himself admitted that he was guilty of bribery. In addition, since there is no clear explanation for the match manipulation, if he is deployed, the gaze will inevitably sting. He got a good opportunity to justify his career while the public was watching, but he failed to save it. The reality is that the justification for Son’s participation in the match has rapidly decreased.