South Korean national soccer team midfielder Son Jun-ho (Shandong Taishan) has been detained by Chinese authorities for three weeks now, and there are suggestions that the case could shed further negative light on the Chinese professional soccer league.
Son has been detained by police in Liaoning province, China, since March 12 and is being investigated. The Chinese government suspects him of accepting bribes. While Shandong coach Hao Wei and some of his players are being investigated by authorities for alleged misconduct, including match-fixing, Son Junho is reportedly facing bribery charges.
The problem is that it’s not clear exactly what he’s accused of. He hasn’t even been granted an interview. This has led some in and out of the Korean soccer community to wonder if there are other factors at play here beyond soccer.
The situation is also affecting the way the Chinese professional soccer league is viewed. The Chinese league is in crisis, with star players leaving and the finances of major clubs deteriorating, and there is some speculation that the Son case could cause players to shun the league. As one soccer insider, who asked not to be named, pointed out, “Who would want to play in the Chinese league after this?”
Indeed, the Chinese league is in crisis. Brazilian soccer stars like Hulk and Oscar joined the Chinese league in the 2010s, but the league began to falter in the wake of COVID-19.
The real estate bust caused by the pandemic has pushed Chinese league club parents into a financial crisis. Super League champions such as Guangzhou Evergrande and Jiangsu Suning have been relegated to the lower leagues or disbanded due to management difficulties.
Famous players such as Alexandre Pato, Paulinho, Axel Witsel, Yannick Carrasco, and Graziano Pele have left China. Last year, only two players from the Chinese league appeared at the World Cup in Qatar: South Korea’s Son Jun-ho and Cameroon striker Christian Bassogog (Shanghai Shenhua). This is a sharp drop from the nine players at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
The number of South Korean players playing in the Chinese league has also dropped significantly. A number of South Korean players have played in the Chinese league, including Kim Eun-hwan, Kim Eun-jung, Kim Jin-kyu, Song Jong-guk, Cho Won-hee, Kim Young-kwon, Kim Dong-jin, and Jang Hyun-soo. Kim Min-jae, who recently led Napoli to the Serie A title, as well as Jung Woo-young, Yoon Beetgaram, and Kim Shin-wook, have also played for Chinese teams.먹튀검증
The number of Korean players in the league, which has been around 10 since 2009, dropped dramatically to two in 2018, and this season there are only three, including Son Jun-ho, Kang Sang-woo (Beijing Guoan) and Kim Min-woo (Chengdu Rongcheng).
With the Son Jun-ho situation, it’s likely that fewer Korean players will be able to make it to the Chinese league in the future. The soccer world believes that it will be difficult for Korean players to play in the Chinese league if they have to deal with such unrest.