Son Heung-min’s father, Son Woong-jung, has been fined 3 million won (£1,683) for violating child welfare law.
The punishment was dished out by a court in South Korea, where Son Woong-jung runs the Son Football Academy.
Two other members of coaching staff from the academy have also been fined 3m won for the same violation.In June, Mail Online reported that Son Woong-jung was accused of beating a young student with a corner flag for ‘coming last in a race’.
The 62-year-old acknowledged that the incident had taken place and he apologised. But he denied that his treatment of players amounted to physical abuse.
This incident was not corporal punishment but a mutually agreed event as part of fitness training,’ he said in a statement. The player came last in a race and was therefore apparently supposed to be ‘hit once’ on the thigh.
The player’s parents reported the coach to the police in March following the training camp and claimed Son Woong-jung had struck their son on the thigh with the flag on March 9, at a training camp in Okinawa, Japan.
The parents also claimed that their child had suffered an injured thigh as a result and that it required treatment for two weeks.
Thinking about how frightened my son must have been makes me angry,’ the father of the student said, via Seoul-based news agency Yonhap.
‘I decided to report the case to the police because I didn’t want to see another case like this.’
Police forwarded the matter to prosecutors in April, with Son Woong-jung subsequently releasing a statement on the incident after attempting to settle the matter with the player’s parents.
We are currently awaiting a fair legal judgement based on facts,’ Son Woong-jung said in a statement, before admitting his coaching methods had failed to uphold standards relating to player welfare.
‘I will self-reflect in atonement for having insisted on my method while failing to catch up with the boundaries set by the change of times and laws,’ he said.
He added that some of the facts as told by those giving evidence were ‘not true’.
‘I swear that coaches at my academy have never engaged in any action that wasn’t based on love for our young players.
‘Much of what the plaintiff has said is not true, and we at the academy are fully cooperating with the authorities during this investigation, without distorting or covering up facts.’
Son Woong-jung is a well-known figure in South Korea, having played football professionally for teams including Sangmu FC, Hyundai Horang-i and Ilhwa Chunma as a forward. He was also selected to represent South Korea’s B team back in 1987.
He is largely credited with helping to raise and coach the generational talent Son Heung-min, who has established himself as a global star.Son Heung-min, 32, currently captains both South Korea and Tottenham Hotspur.
He has scored 164 goals in 415 appearances for Spurs and he became the first Asian player to win the Premier League Golden Boot when he netted 23 times during the 2021-22 season.
The Son Football Academy, which is located approximately 80km northeast of Seoul, cost just under £11m to build.
