Four arrested in volleyball match-fixing scandal

DAEGU, Feb. 8 (Yonhap) -- Three former and current pro league volleyball players have been arrested on suspicions of rigging games in return for financial rewards from a gambling broker, prosecutors in Daegu said Wednesday. The Daegu District Prosecutors' Office said they took the three men, including a 30-year-old player surnamed Yum, and the broker surnamed Kang into custody as part of their investigation into the suspected game rigging. Yum, who was his team's libero before retiring from KEPCO45 in the V-League in July last year, is suspected of throwing matches in February 2010, by deliberately making mistakes after consulting with Kang. Two other players also allegedly took part in rigging at least four confirmed matches, according to the prosecutors. Kang allegedly pocketed massive profits from his gambling bets from the losses of Yum's team. Yum and the arrested players are also suspected to have shared the profits, according to the prosecutors. Prosecutors said they decided to broaden the investigation into other players from the same team after Yum said, "Other players also took part in the match rigging." They left open the possibility that other pro teams could have been involved in the match-rigging scandal. The V-League has six pro teams along with one military athletes' team. The first-ever investigation into suspected match rigging in the V-League came after prosecutors indicted dozens of current and former players in the country's professional football K-League for match-fixing. (END)