Samsung baseball chief to resign after players linked to gambling scandal

SEOUL, Dec. 15 (Yonhap) -- The president of South Korea's leading baseball team,
the Samsung Lions, said Monday he plans to resign amid a broadening investigation
into an online gambling scandal involving more than a dozen of its players.
Kim Euong-young, a legendary former manager who captured 10 national titles in
his career, said he feels morally obligated to assume responsibility for the
scandal in which 13 of his players are accused of regularly betting at an
overseas gambling site.
South Korea's law criminalizes those who routinely gamble on the Internet, and
state prosecutors said this month they are likely to push for the indictment of
several they believe have bet up to 300 million won (US$222,000).
"I have concluded that someone has to take responsibility for the current
situation," Kim, 68, said, adding his general manager Kim Jae-ha will also
resign.
A total of 16 players from three teams have been nabbed, prosecutors said, with
Lions members forming the majority. The investigation is another blow to the most
lavishly financed team in the eight-member league, after a recent trade brouhaha
in which the Lions tried to buy out an up-and-coming pitcher from a nascent rival
team.
The Lions are backed by Samsung Group, the country's largest conglomerate whose
business activities account for about a fifth of South Korea's GDP. The team,
launched in 1982 simultaneously with the inception of the professional league,
finished fourth this season, after having claimed four titles, one under Kim as
manager.
Kim headed what is now the Kia Tigers from 1982-2000, bringing the team the
league title a whopping nine times.
samkim@yna.co.kr
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