KBS
At 10 p.m. on the 18th, episode 1384 of KBS1’s ’60 Minutes Tracking’ will air the episode ‘Tears of an Olympic Gold Medalist.’
<a href="https://www.archysport.com/2022/01/son-wan-ho-and-kim-sa-rang-miryang-city-hall-dalgo-sortie-db-group-badminton-korea-league-opening/” title=”Son Wan-ho and Kim Sa-rang, Miryang City Hall Dalgo Sortie… DB Group Badminton Korea League Opening”>Ahn Se-young won the gold medal in women’s badminton singles at the 2024 Paris Olympics for the first time in 28 years. His remark after the game had a huge impact. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has launched a fact-finding investigation into the Korea Badminton Association, and the National Assembly is conducting a large-scale audit of the entire sports world. The sports world is waiting with bated breath for the national audit and government announcement. tracked the unknown and poor management of some sports organizations under the Korea Sports Council that came to light after Ahn Se-young’s resolute remarks.
On September 24th, a photo of Ahn Se-young’s blistered feet was revealed during a question on pending issues in the National Assembly. It was a photo submitted by a person complaining of pain due to the sponsor’s shoes that did not fit. It is said that Ahn Se-young met with the association early this year and requested that she wear shoes from another brand instead of shoes from the sponsor company ‘B’. At the National Assembly that day, Chairman Kim Taek-gyu answered that he could not change his shoes because of his contract with the sponsor.
Every four years, the association selects an official sponsor for the national team and attracts donations. The association signed a sponsorship contract with ‘B’ company in 2023. At the time of signing the sponsorship contract with Company ‘A’ in 2017, the association signed an annual sponsorship contract worth $3.6 million. However, when signing a contract with company ‘B’ in April last year, a smaller contract was signed for $2.7 million per year. Officials from Company ‘A’ are said to have communicated several times that they have prepared a contract of similar size to 2017. However, the association proceeded with a private contract with company ‘B’ without competitive bidding. We trace the entire mysterious sponsor selection process.
Another suspicion raised by the Korea Badminton Association is the so-called ‘payback controversy’. Last year, the association purchased the supplies needed for the promotion league and youth club league from sponsor company ‘B’. In this process, sponsorship items, including shuttlecocks worth 150 million won, or about 30% of the purchase price, were received on the grounds of a ‘sponsor contract’. However, this led to the ‘payback’ controversy. Also, it is unclear that although it was purchased with government subsidies, it was carried out through a negotiated contract without competitive bidding.
Sponsored items were delivered to each city and badminton association under the association. Among these, it was revealed that goods worth 53 million won were delivered to the Chungnam Badminton Association, where Chairman Kim Taek-gyu previously served as president of the association. Chairman Kim claims that sponsorship items were distributed taking into account participation rates in sports competitions and promotion-based leagues. However, 41 of the 243 competitions were held last year in South Chungcheong Province. On the other hand, Gyeongnam, which hosted the most competitions (49), only received three towels and one set of clothes. Was there really a fair distribution process? Or whether it was a payback or a sponsorship item, we covered the controversy in depth.
The total number of executives of the Korea Badminton Association is 40. This is a larger number than the Korea Football Association, which has a budget of 187.6 billion won this year. However, for the past five years from 2019 to 2023, all donations made by the Badminton Association were counted as ‘0 won’. Among the associations that produced gold medals at the Paris Olympics, the Korea Badminton Association was the only one whose executives, including the president, did not make donations.
The Korea Badminton Association’s code of conduct clearly states, ‘You cannot receive money or valuables from anyone related to your job, regardless of whether it is compensation, and you cannot intervene in or influence sponsorship or sponsorship.’ However, it was revealed that some executives of the association received a total of 68 million won from 2022 to 2023 as success compensation (incentives) for their contribution in attracting sponsors. However, the association strangely deleted the provision for sponsors to pay rewards for excellent performance by national team players. It is questionable for whom the association is run.
Ahn Se-young said, “I hope there is at least one adult who can correct this situation.” When I heard that story, I thought that the country should also take action.
The president of a sporting organization under the Korean Sports Council is given enormous authority and responsibility. Shooting achieved the best performance in Olympic history at the Paris Olympics. However, the shooting team has not yet received the medal reward. This is because an unprecedented situation occurred when Shin, the president of the Korea Shooting Federation, submitted a letter of resignation while the Olympics were in progress.
Chairman Shin suddenly resigned after it was reported that the hospital he managed was undergoing an internal investigation by the Ministry of Employment and Labor due to unpaid wages. An official from the Shooting Federation said in an interview that they were not aware of Chairman Shin’s unpaid wages issue during the selection process. It is questionable whether the selection of the shooting federation president went through thorough verification.
The budget provided by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to the Korea Sports Council this year amounts to 410 billion won. The Korea Sports Council distributes the allocated budget to affiliated sports organizations. also conducted in-depth coverage of the poor accounting audits of some business organizations in which citizens’ tax dollars were invested.
Episode 1384 of ‘60 Minutes Chase’, ‘Tears of an Olympic Gold Medalist’, will be broadcast at 10 PM on Friday, October 18.
