 |
Son Woong-jung, father of South Korean football star Son Heung-min and director of Son Football Academy, holds a book signing event in Seoul on Jun. 26. (Yonhap) |
Parents of players training at the football academy run by the father of South Korean football star Son Heung-min on Thursday dismissed child abuse allegations against him.
Son Woong-jung, a former player and director of Son Football Academy, and two of his coaches are under investigation over charges that they had physically and verbally abused a young player.
In a joint statement issued Thursday, parents of other players said they had never once heard of or seen any corporal punishment at the football facility over the many years that their children had spent there.
The young player who raised abuse allegations has claimed that he was struck with a corner flag by one of the coaches during a training camp in Okinawa, Japan, in March.
However, the other parents on Thursday said they didn't notice anything peculiar while in Okinawa.
"Even our children are wondering what happened that day," the parents' statement read. "We are not putting coach Son on a pedestal or justifying physical punishment. But people from the outside are blowing things out of proportion, when those who have been at the facility didn't see anything wrong. And those outsiders have turned all other members of the academy into victims and that has been troubling for us. We'd like to ask them to stop this."
These parents said their children have been facing intense media scrutiny since allegations against Son were first reported last week.
"We have drones from news outlets flying above training pitches, and numerous articles have been written on the academy," the parents' statement read. "Our daily lives have been thrown out of whack by all the calls we've been taking from the media."
The parents also took shots at civic groups and the state-run Korea Sports Ethics Center for making assumptions about Son and his staff.
"People at civic groups that have never once set foot on the field are calling the coach violent, even though they've never met him. And the ethics center is threatening to investigate the academy even though it has never paid attention to this place before," the parents said. "Children training here say they are happy. So who are these people really investigating this matter for? Whose human rights are they trying to protect?"
The statement was distributed to the media just as civic groups were holding a panel discussion on the situation at the Son academy.
After learning of the statement, Kim Hyun-soo, executive director at Civic Network for Justice in Sport, said those parents' defense of Son could cause more hurt for the alleged victim.
"I am sure coach Son is a nice person. But something clearly did take place. And the parents' defense of wrongdoing could lead to secondary victimization," Kim said. "A statement such as this can be devastating for the victim."
Ham Eun-joo, secretary general of the Sports and Human Rights Institute, agreed.
"These parents may want to make sure their children can keep playing football there, but they're committing a harmful act," Ham said. "It's the academy's responsibility to prevent such disruptions to its training programs."
Son has denied abuse allegations and has offered to fully cooperate with the authorities.
One of the coaches under investigation has been identified as Son Heung-yun, the older brother of Heung-min. (Yonhap)
