Parents reject abuse allegations against Son Heung-min’s father at soccer academy

The parents of footballers training at the soccer academy run by the father of Korean soccer star Son Heung-min on Thursday rejected accusations of child abuse.

Son Woong-jung, a former player and director of Son Football Academy, and two of his coaches are under investigation over allegations of physical and verbal abuse towards a young player.

In a joint statement released Thursday, parents of other players said that in the many years their children have spent at the facility, they have never heard of or seen any corporal punishment there.

The young player who made the abuse allegations alleges he was hit with a flag in the corner of the pitch by one of the coaches during a training camp in Okinawa, Japan, in March.

The other parents, however, said Thursday they did not notice anything unusual during their stay in Okinawa.

“Even our children are wondering what happened that day,” the parents said in a statement. “We are not putting coach Son on a pedestal or justifying physical punishment. But people outside are blowing it out of proportion, while those inside the facility saw nothing wrong with it. And those outside have made everyone else in the academy a victim, which is worrying to us. We would like to ask them to stop this.”

Parents say their children have been under increased media scrutiny since allegations against Son first emerged last week.

“We have news agency drones flying over the training pitches and there have been numerous articles written about the academy,” the parents said in a statement. “Our daily lives have been thrown out of balance by all the calls we receive from the media.”

Parents also criticized civic organizations and the state-run Korea Center for Sports Ethics for making assumptions about Son and his staff.

“People from civic groups who have never set foot on the pitch are calling the coach aggressive, even though they have never met him. And the ethics center is threatening to investigate the academy, even though it has never paid attention to the place before,” the parents said. “The kids who train here say they are happy. So who are these people really investigating this for? Whose human rights are they trying to protect?”

The statement was released to media shortly after civic groups held a panel discussion on the situation at Son Academy.

After reviewing the statement, Kim Hyun-soo, executive director of the Civic Network for Justice in Sport, said that having Son defended by his parents could cause even greater harm to the alleged victim.

“I’m sure Coach Son is a nice person. But something clearly happened. And defending your parents from wrongdoing can lead to secondary victimization,” Kim said. “That kind of statement can be devastating to the victim.”

Ham Eun-joo, secretary general of the Institute of Sports and Human Rights, agreed with this opinion.

“These parents may want to make sure their kids can play football there, but they are committing a harmful act,” Ham said. “It is the academy’s responsibility to prevent that disruption in their training programs.”

Son has denied accusations of wrongdoing and offered full cooperation with authorities.

One of the coaches under investigation turned out to be Son Heung-yun, Heung-min’s older brother. (Yonhap)