(EDITORIAL from Korea Herald on Sept. 12)

Outdated custom
Probe of sport association exposes problems; operational transparency must be established

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced Tuesday the interim results of its ongoing investigation into the operation of the Badminton Korea Association. The probe was prompted by a severe criticism by An Se-young in an interview with reporters after winning a gold medal in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

Some management practices and regulations of the association are found to be outdated or opaque. Many regulation violations were also uncovered.

A regulation bans players from participating in international meets if they had not been national team members for a certain period. Under the regulation, only those who have been national team members for at least five years are qualified to enter international competitions approved by the Badminton World Federation. According to the ministry, the Badminton Korea Association is the only domestic governing body in an Olympic or Asian Games sport to have such a regulation. The ministry seeks to repeal this regulation.

The ministry found that the association's guidelines on the management of the national team had an outdated clause to the effect that players must obey any command or order from their coaches.

A regulation exacting absolute obedience from athletes was officially abolished in the domestic sports community with the revision of related law in the National Assembly after a high-profile tragedy in which a 22-year-old female triathlete killed herself in June 2020, allegedly under the strain of being physically assaulted habitually by her senior teammates and coach. But this anti-human rights clause was found still in force in the association. This clause must be abolished quickly.

The ministry raised the possibility of embezzlement and breach of trust by Kim Taek-gyu, president of the association.

Last year, Kim and a senior official of the association cut a clandestine sponsorship deal with a badminton equipment maker and received 150 million won ($111,000) worth of shuttlecocks and rackets. They did not take proper procedures in the process of distributing the sponsored goods to provincial associations.

From 2022 to 2024, the association signed private contracts with a sponsor to purchase a total of 2.6 billion won worth of its goods. The ministry regarded the contracts as violation of related statute that requires public bidding in case of purchasing goods worth more than 20 million won.

The association was found to have paid 16 million won in bookkeeping and other fees to an accounting firm headed by its auditor.

The ministry is looking into why the association removed a regulation that granted players part of the money coming from sponsors.

The chances are these problems are not limited to the badminton association. Jin Jong-oh, lawmaker of the ruling People Power Party and Olympic shooting gold medalist who operates a center to receive complaints about corruption in sports circles, said Monday that about 70 reports were filed with the center. Reported corruption was diverse: public money embezzlement, unlawful personnel management, unpaid prize money, bribery, sexual abuse and match-fixing.

It is questionable if corruption and irrational practices are prevalent throughout domestic sports community. As a matter of fact, backwardness in Korean sports management would be nothing new. Authoritarian operation of an organization, unfair selection of national athletes, inefficient training and poor injury treatment systems were often cited as chronic problems. Some heads of sport groups are more interested in being reelected than providing good conditions for athletes.

The badminton association deserves blame for an array of problems, but the ministry is not safe from criticism, either.

The ministry's annual sport budget is around 1.62 trillion won, of which 420 billion won is subsidized to the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee which has national associations and federations under its wing. The ministry has responsibility for supervising the committee and its affiliated organizations to prevent tax waste.

The interim results of its probe show that a sweeping reform to ensure transparency and fairness is unavoidable. The government must straighten irrational sport customs, root out corruption if any and strictly hold wrongdoers responsible.
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