The father of Tottenham Hotspur star Son Heung-min denied allegations of bodily and verbal abuse at his South Korean soccer academy on Wednesday, following a lawsuit from a pupil’s household in opposition to him and his coaches.
Son Woong-Jung, a former footballer who gained prominence in South Korea by means of the success of his son, runs a coaching academy for aspiring gamers.
He has additionally authored a best-selling memoir, sharing his soccer philosophy and detailing his function in shaping his son into one of many Premier League’s prime strikers.
South Korean media reported Wednesday on allegations of bodily and verbal abuse made by one in every of his soccer academy’s college students, who claimed a coach hit him with a nook flag throughout coaching, inflicting accidents that required weeks of therapy.
Son, 62, acknowledged the incident however denied it amounted to bodily abuse.
“This incident was not corporal punishment but a mutually agreed event as part of fitness training,” he stated in a press release.
The participant got here final in a race, he stated and was alleged to be “hit once” on the thigh.
The incident got here to gentle after the younger participant’s mother and father reported Son to the police in March after they observed a bruise on their son’s thigh.
They offered {a photograph} of the purported harm, which was revealed by South Korea’s Yonhap news company.
“Thinking about how frightened my son must have been makes me angry,” the daddy stated, Yonhap reported. “I decided to report the case to the police because I didn’t want to see another case like this.”
Son stated he had tried to resolve the matter amicably however failed as a result of the mother and father had demanded a settlement price a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of received (a whole lot of 1000’s of {dollars}).
“We are currently awaiting a fair legal judgment based on facts,” he stated within the assertion.
Son admitted his teaching strategies had didn’t observe new requirements regarding gamers’ human rights.
“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.”
Source: www.dailysabah.com