The Korea Herald exclusively reported on Wednesday that Son Woong-jung, the father, and Son Heung-yun, the elder brother of Tottenham Hotspur and the country's national team captain, Son Heung-min, were fined 3 million won and suspended from coaching for allegedly abusing a young academy student at the football academy they opened and run.

According to the report, the incident has been confirmed by South Korea's Gangwon Football Association (GFA) .

Authorities said that the non-government affiliated organization Korean Sports Ethics Center (KSEC) was earlier instructed by the South Korean Ministry of Sports to investigate the incident in which Son Woong-jung and Son Heung-yun were suspected of using abusive language and violent corporal punishment on a young academy student at the Son Football Academy jointly run by Son Woong-jung and Son Heung-yun.

The investigation pointed out that after questioning the victim, the authorities learned that Son Woong-jung had repeatedly insulted the victim with abusive language because he was dissatisfied with his performance.

Son Heung-yun even picked up an baton and beat the student for corporal punishment because he ran slowly and shot inaccurately during a training camp in March 2024, causing him to receive two weeks of treatment for his injury.

In addition, another assistant coach in the academy also participated in the student's violence suddenly and premeditatedly.

Later, the student, led by his parents, reported the case to the police. The Gangwon Police Station immediately launched an investigation and brought the case to the Chuncheon District Court.

After several months of trial, the Chuncheon District Court sentenced Son Woong-jung, Son Heung-yun and the assistant coach guilty of violating the Child Welfare Act in November 2024 and each must pay a fine of 3 million won.

At the same time, the case will also be submitted to the Korean Football Association Disciplinary Committee for further punishment.

In the end, the Korean Football Association decided to suspend the three people from coaching for six months nationwide.

After the verdict was announced, although he had apologized to the victim's family, Son Woong-jung still appealed, claiming that he had to resort to this measure in order to motivate the student to do better.

However, the lawyer representing the victim said that in fact, it was not the first time that Son Woong-jung, Son Heung-yun and the assistant coach had corporal punishment on academy students in this way. For this reason, it can no longer be considered an impulsive mistake.

It is worth mentioning that this is not the first time that Son Woong-jung has been exposed to have the habit of corporal punishment in training. As early as 2020, he had revealed in an interview that he often corporal punishment on Son Heung-min in a similar way when he was a child, but the Tottenham Hotspur captain never complained about his father's methods.

With the exposure of this incident, this is the second time that Son Heung-min has been exposed to scandal in a week.

In addition to this incident, the Korean international striker who just broke the club's 17-year title drought with Spurs and helped the Premier League giants win the Europa League was also caught in a public opinion storm after his ex-girlfriend extorted him 300 million won because of pregnancy.