South Korea's professional football league said Monday it would double the players' minimum wage to try to curtail corruption as the fallout from a major match-fixing scandal widens. The K-League said it would raise the annual minimum wage from 12 million won ($11,350) to 24 million won starting next year, and provide a pension.
From 2013, the 16-team league will split its competition in to first and second divisions under a promotion and relegation system widely used in international football competitions. The league also said it would adopt the polygraph testing - or lie detector - system currently used in Singapore to prevent match-fixing. It said teams involved in throwing matches would be demoted to a lower-tier league or lose points and the right to play in the AFC Champions League. Prosecutors said last week that 57 people - 46 current and former players and 11 criminal gang members and gambling brokers - have been charged with involvement in match-fixing.