Son Heung-min’s father Son Woong-jung has been given a £1,700 fine after being found guilty of verbally and physically abusing young footballers at his academy in South Korea. The penalty was handed out at Chuncheon District Court, 75 kilometres northeast of Seoul.
The case was forwarded to the prosecution in April after complaints were made to police in March.
The Tottenham star’s brother Son Heung-yun was also sanctioned, along with another unnamed coach.
According to The Korea Times, the parents of one player complained that their son sustained injuries to his thigh area which needed to be treated for two weeks after Heung-yun allegedly hit him with a corner flag during a training camp in Japan.
The parents claimed that he had also hurled profanities at players after they had made mistakes during sessions.
There were also accusations of physical and verbal abuse of young players at the training facility in South Korea.
All three defendants received the same £1,700 fine and were each ordered to complete 40 hours of child abuse treatment programmes. The trio can appeal the decision and ask for a trial within seven days.
Woong-jung has insisted that many of the charges against him and his staff are not true and has asserted that he has not behaved in any way that wasn’t driven by love for the players he coaches.
But he also vowed to review coaching methods at the academy, which opened in 2021.
Woong-jung’s son Heung-min has become one of the best attackers in the Premier League since joining Tottenham from Bayer Leverkusen in 2015.
The winger has bagged 164 goals and 86 assists in 415 appearances for his team and helped them reach the Champions League final in 2019, where they lost to Liverpool.
Son became the Tottenham captain last summer following the appointment of Ange Postecoglou as manager and enjoyed a fine maiden campaign under the Australian as he contributed 17 goals and 10 assists in 37 Premier League appearances.
The 32-year-old started his side’s first five top-flight matches this time around but missed the clashes with Manchester United and Brighton ahead of the international break after sustaining a hamstring injury during Spurs’ Europa League victory over Qarabag last month.
Postecoglou will be desperate to have Son back for the visit of West Ham next weekend after watching his side throw away a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2 at Brighton last Sunday.
And ahead of that encounter, the Spurs boss gave an update on Son as he explained: “Sonny unlikely, he’s pushing hard but I just don’t think the turnaround will be quick enough for him to be available at this stage.”
