Since the start of the new season of the Chinese Super League, Shandong Taishan team has not had a good time, the first 7 rounds of the league, the Taishan team, which was originally regarded as the favorite to win the championship, has only achieved 1 win, 4 draws and 2 losses, and in the last 4 rounds, it is difficult to win 3 draws and 1 loss, and currently ranks 8th in the standings with only 7 points. And off the field, the Shandong Taishan team is also non-stop: the Wu Xinghan peach incident has not yet subsided, Jin Jingdao was rumored to be investigated for allegedly organizing gambling, and then Hao Wei, the head coach who only led the team to play one Chinese Super League match, "disappeared out of thin air" again... Now, Shandong Taishan team's meritorious foreign aid and South Korean backer Son Jun-ho is also involved in this whirlpool.
On the evening of May 13, former "Sports Weekly" reporter Ran Xiongfei hinted on his personal social media that the Shandong Taishan team was getting bigger and bigger, and Sun Junhao and Guo Tianyu were suspected of being taken away by the police for investigation. According to Ran Xiongfei, although Sun Junhao participated in the away match against Chengdu Rongcheng on the evening of the 10th, he was eventually replaced directly because he was "talked about before the game". When Shandong Taishan switched to another away game in Cangzhou after the game, Sun Junhao was simply not in the team lineup.
On the 14th, the South Korean media "Footballist" broke the news that Sun Junhao is being investigated by relevant Chinese departments, and the media revealed that on the 12th of this month, the investigation of Hao Wei, the head coach of the Shandong Taishan team, was further expanded, and the whole team of the Taishan team was questioned. On the 12th, Sun Junhao was not at the scene because he sent his family back to China, so in another questioning later, Sun Junhao was summoned by the relevant departments and accepted more investigations, and this investigation may be related to the previous incident involving Hao Wei and others.
According to exclusive information obtained by Footballist, Son Joon-ho has cooperated with the relevant authorities to investigate for more than 24 hours, and if he himself has no problems, he is expected to be released on the 14th. At the same time, the media reported that people close to Son Jun-ho have told "footballist" that the player himself has absolutely no connection with gambling and match-fixing, but he will cooperate with the investigation of relevant parties.
However, on the 15th, people did not wait for the news of Sun Junhao's release, but things developed in an increasingly complicated direction. Yonhap News Agency quoted a relevant person from the South Korean Embassy in China as saying that Sun Junhao was investigated while he was detained by the Liaoning provincial police, "We learned that the Chinese Liaoning Provincial Public Security detained and investigated Sun." Consular offices are providing the necessary assistance. ”
According to people familiar with the matter, Sun Junhao was investigated by the Chaoyang City Public Security Bureau of Liaoning Province from the 12th in a state of "criminal detention", and because the subject of this investigation is the Liaoning Provincial Public Security Organ, Sun Junhao has been transferred from his place of residence Shandong to Liaoning. Moreover, the Chinese public security department has informed the South Korean Consulate General in Shenyang on the 15th that Sun Junhao has been criminally detained.
It is worth noting that shortly after the South Korean Embassy in China confirmed that Sun Junhao was detained by the Liaoning Provincial Public Security Department and subjected to investigation, the Korean broadcasting company KBS revealed that Sun Junhao was stopped by the police on the morning of May 12 when he tried to leave the country through Shanghai Airport, and the Chaoyang City Public Security Bureau in Liaoning Province detained him on the grounds of "suspected bribery to non-public officials". KBS's statement that Son Jun-ho "ran away" is obviously different from the previous Korean media "Footballist" that Son Jun-ho was absent on the 12th because he sent his family back to China, and the relevant departments asked about the entire Shandong Taishan team.
Now, here's the problem... As a South Korean international player who participated in the World Cup, Son Joon-ho actually relied on "bribery" to play in the Chinese Super League ?! If this is true, then why did he pay a bribe? And who is the person who took the bribe? Is it the team's coaching staff or the club's management stakeholders? This "he" who took the money is the focus of people's attention. Intriguingly, May 12 happened to be Sun Junhao's 31st birthday, and Shandong Taishan Club also wished Sun Junhao a happy birthday on official social media, but after the investigation storm, Taishan Club did not come forward to respond to various questions from the outside world.
In the winter window of 2021, Son Jun-ho joined Shandong Taishan from Jeonbuk Hyundai under the aura of K-League MVP. That season, Sun Junhao helped Shandong Taishan win the double of the Chinese Super League and FA Cup, and his performance and professionalism were widely recognized in Chinese football. At the beginning of 2022, Sun Junhao renewed his contract with Shandong Taishan until 2026, a season when Shandong lost the league championship but eventually won the FA Cup. And Son Joon-ho also played in the 2022 Qatar World Cup with the South Korean national team with his stable and outstanding performance in the Chinese Super League. However, at the beginning of the 2023 season, Son Jun-ho encountered the biggest crisis of his career so far, this time, can he turn the danger into safety?
In this eventful autumn, the trouble of the Shandong Taishan team is one after another, giving people a sense of déjà vu of pressing the gourd and floating the scoop. However, compared to the coach and individual players, the crisis faced by Shandong Taishan Club is not small at all. Earlier, according to the "Football News", Jinan Cultural Tourism Development Group, the major shareholder of Shandong Taishan Team, had serious problems in the allocation of funds, and the current financial situation of the club was not optimistic, and if there was no strong intervention of relevant departments, it was likely to fall into deeper difficulties.