“整个国家堕落到了极点！”今年早些时候韩国总统李明博曾这样说到。近年来，尽管韩国的经济和社会指标飞速攀升，但是其社会腐败程度并未因此而降低。此次，李明博的愤怒便缘起于国家公务人员的腐败问题。2008至2010年间，违反公共服务道德规范的国家公职人员数量几乎翻了一番。
企业部门的情况同样不容乐观。在财阀企业的巨头中间已然形成了这样一个怪圈，即：腐败—定罪—最后毫无例外地获得赦免。三星电子集团主席李健熙（他曾于2009年犯下偷税漏税罪，但最终获得赦免）最近公然谴责其领导下的电子帝国内部的腐败问题。
因此，在韩国职业足球联赛出现同样的腐败问题也就不足为奇了。到本月为止，共有46名球员因赌球调查案而被捕。据负责此案的检察官透露，赌球行为至少对去年的八场比赛结果造成了影响。
“经纪人”—主要是犯罪集团成员，或前足球队员—会拿出一亿韩元（约合95000美元）贿赂球员，让他们故意传球失误或形成防守漏洞。然后，赌家便可以通过特殊的彩券进行赌球。如果赌家能够猜中赢球队伍，并选中一张中奖彩券，便可以得到一定数额的奖金。有人怀疑，来自中国和东南亚等国的一些有组织的犯罪集团也参与了韩国的赌球行为，因为在这些国家和地区打假球的行为非常普遍。大田市民队和凤凰队两只球队打假球的嫌疑非常大，目前已经有十几名队员遭到逮捕。此外，韩国职业联赛还对八名球员做出了终生禁赛的处罚。
据一位经营足球业务的企业家透露，像大田这样的足球队中往往存在着一名罪魁祸首，通常是一名即将退役的二流球员。在收受了经纪人的“棕色信封”后，他便把钱分给队友，让他们在比赛中作假。由于韩国的等级文化森严，年轻的队员很难拒绝年长队员的贿赂及时抽身，而且整体排外的氛围也非常不利于揭发弊案。
此外，许多韩国足球队员手头确实不太宽裕，有些队员月收入仅为300万韩元。这也使得他们无法抗拒“奖金”的诱惑，从而加入打假球的行列。
由于顶尖的韩国球员大多去了欧洲足球俱乐部效力，韩国足球比赛的上座率非常惨淡，这也是造成韩国球员收入不高的一个原因。韩国职业联赛官方表示，他们将会提高球员津贴以应对此次危机。然而，要彻底摆脱足坛腐败问题仍然困难重重。尽管韩国经济活力十足已经跻身世界前列，但是却被腐败摆了一记大乌龙。
译文：
“THE entire nation is rotten,” said President Lee Myung-bak earlier this year. His frank outburst, in a country where the level of corruption has not fallen nearly as fast as economic and social indicators have climbed, was prompted by civil servants: the number of officials found to have broken the public-service ethics code almost doubled between 2008 and 2010.
The corporate sector is little better. Heads of chaebol (conglomerates) have been locked in a cycle of graft, conviction and the inevitable special pardon. Lee Kun-hee, chairman of Samsung Electronics (who was pardoned in 2009 for tax evasion), recently denounced corruption within part of his empire.
That makes it less surprising that football teams in the national K-League have similar problems. So far this month 46 players have been arrested during an investigation into match-fixing which, prosecutors say, affected the outcomes of at least eight games last year.
“Brokers”—mainly members of criminal gangs, or ex-players—would hand out bribes of perhaps 100m won ($95,000) to encourage scuffed shots or defensive howlers. Bets would then be placed via special lottery tickets that pay out if punters select a winning team as well as a winning ticket. Some suspect that organised-crime groups from China and South-East Asia, where match-fixing is said to be rife, were involved. Two clubs, Daejeon Citizen and Sangju Sangmu Phoenix, hold the dubious distinction of having more than ten players under arrest. Eight have now been given lifetime bans by the league.
According to a businessman involved in football, teams like Daejeon tended to have one ringleader, typically a middling player facing an uncertain retirement. After receiving the brown envelope from his broker, he would divide the money between team-mates in on the ruse. Thanks to South Korea’s culture of age-based hierarchy, it was especially hard for younger players to opt out. The clubby atmosphere discouraged whistle-blowing against higher-ups.
What is more, many football players are relatively hard-up. Some earn just 3m won a month. This makes the temptation to take “reward money” for fumbling a cross harder to resist
