Spurs star Son’s father and brother fined over child abuse

SEOUL: Tottenham Hotspur star Son Heung-min´s father and brother have been fined in a child abuse case, South Korean prosecutors told AFP on Friday.

Son Woong-jung is a public figure in South Korea and authored a best-selling memoir detailing how he helped his son become one of the best strikers in the English Premier League. He runs a football academy where his elder son Son Heung-yun coached.

The pair and another coach at the academy were accused in April of physically and verbally abusing a 12-year-old student. Prosecutors said on Friday that they have fined Son Woong-jung, Son Heung-yun and a coach based on the Child Welfare Act and Child Abuse Punishment Act, without specifying how much the fine was.

All three were also ordered to undertake child abuse treatment programmes. The student´s family claimed a coach hit him with a corner flag during training, causing injuries that required weeks of treatment.

The student, identified only as Kim, told police he was the target of foul language just weeks after his enrollment at Son senior´s academy in November. “I was called out by coach Son for making a mistake during a passing practice,” Kim alleged in the interview.

Son senior, 62, acknowledged the incident had occurred, but denied it 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.

Son Heung-yun previously said that he and Son Heung-min were “hit by our father a lot when training, which is unimaginable these days”. “Some of our neighbours even doubted he was our real father,” he told AFP in a 2019 interview.