While the Korea Badminton Association is experiencing internal turmoil, Jeon Kyung-hoon, president of the Korea Business Badminton Federation, has issued a challenge to become the new head of the association. The former president’s declaration of candidacy is attracting attention as the association is in turmoil due to the police’s forced investigation into the association’s current president Kim Taek-gyu and Paris Olympics gold medalist Ahn Se-young’s absence from the association’s award ceremony.
Currently, the Korea Badminton Association is in extreme confusion. On the 28th, Songpa Police Station in Seoul searched and seized the headquarters of the association and sponsor Yonex Korea in connection with suspicions of embezzlement of sponsorship items and breach of trust by Kim Taek-gyu, current president of the Badminton Association. In addition, Paris Olympics gold medalist Ahn Se-young announced that he would not attend the national team award ceremony held on the 30th, continuing his difficult relationship with the association. The association held an awards ceremony on the 30th, taking into account the schedule for the national team’s training to be completed, but Ahn Se-young expressed his intention to not attend, citing injury rehabilitation treatment and personal schedules.
In this situation, the Korea Business Badminton Federation officially announced on the 28th that President Jeon Kyung-hoon would run for the election as president of the Korea Badminton Association. The former president was fascinated by the performance of Ahn Se-young, who won the gold medal for the first time in 27 years at the Paris Olympics. In particular, Ahn pointed out problems in the association’s player injury management, player development and training methods, and competition participation through SNS, saying, “This situation It is known that the appeal was greatly influenced by the appeal, “I sincerely hope that there are adults who will solve the problem.” Chairman Jeon said, “I was greatly moved by Ahn Se-young’s writing, and I decided to run for office because I wanted to become that adult.”
Former Chairman Jeon also made an unconventional pledge while running for the position of Chairman. The plan is to donate a total of 2.4 billion won to the association during the four-year term. The plan is to achieve balanced development by investing 600 million won each year in professional sports and recreational sports.
In particular, he announced that he will lead the leap forward in professional sports, including the national team, by improving the irrational system that has recently emerged, introducing a systematic player training system, and early discovering excellent school sports players.
In addition, the plan is to actively attract external corporate sponsors and enter into 1:1 sponsorship agreements with 17 city and provincial associations to provide tangible benefits to local hobbyists. They announced that they will not only attract league competitions in the metropolitan area, but will also pursue the establishment of a badminton-specific stadium that can host international competitions for the first time in Korea. Furthermore, he expressed his ambition to actively participate in hosting the World Championships, a long-awaited project of the Korea Badminton Association.
Chairman Jeon emphasized, “Because I have no debt to the association and am not influenced by customs, I cannot be influenced by interests or self-interest at any crossroads of choice, and I can look at things more objectively and fairly than anyone else and set a direction.” He then expressed confidence, saying, “I can prove this by looking at my results during my term as president of the Korea Business Badminton Federation.”
Chairman Jeon, a successful entrepreneur with a background as a pharmacist, took on the challenge of the restaurant industry by founding a restaurant brand called ‘Passion Gukbap’ in 2020. Within three years, it achieved great success by expanding the number of franchises nationwide to 250 and achieving annual sales of 150 billion won.
Having consistently enjoyed badminton, he was elected as the 3rd President of the Business Badminton Federation in July of last year due to his extraordinary passion for the sport. With this, he began a new challenge as a businessman and badminton administrator.
Afterwards, while serving as president of the Korea Business Badminton Federation, he introduced a prize money system for the first time in a domestic competition, and held various events such as a leader’s retirement ceremony, a fan signing event to promote local competitions, and a prize drawing event. He is also a badminton fan and has shown a special interest in the development of sports, such as sponsoring Passion Gukbap at 15 sports badminton competitions across the country.
