The ball fired by Paris Olympics gold medalist Ahn Se-young hit Korea Sports Council President Lee Ki-heung squarely. Chairman Lee was embroiled in suspicions of hiring corruption. During the recruitment process for the Jincheon National Team Athlete’s Village, suspicions were raised that an unfair order was made to relax qualification requirements in order to select children’s friends. On the 10th, the ‘Government Joint Public Service Inspection Team’ of the Office for Government Policy Coordination announced the results of the inspection of the Korea Sports Council, including these details, and announced that it would request Chairman Lee and eight related persons to be investigated by the National Investigation Headquarters of the National Police Agency.
The inspection team received information on corruption related to the Korea Sports Council and assigned six investigators to conduct an on-site inspection for about a month starting on the 8th of last month, and conducted face-to-face investigations with about 70 executives and employees of the Korea Sports Council. In this inspection, the Sports Association is accused of △ fraudulent hiring △ private use of sponsorship items △ requests for sponsorship of goods △ waste of budget.
According to the inspection team, it was found that Chairman Lee gave unfair instructions to hire Mr. A, who is a college friend of his child, when recruiting staff for the 2022 national team athlete village. During this process, it was revealed that Chairman Lee delivered Mr. A’s resume to Mr. B, a high-ranking official at the athletes’ village, and instructed several times to relax the qualification requirements, even though Mr. A was not qualified. Originally, the position required national team experience and level 2 professional sports instructor qualifications, but these qualifications were relaxed under Chairman Lee’s instructions.
Seo Young-seok, a public service manager at the inspection team, said, “Chairman Lee ordered the relaxation of qualification requirements and ignored internal reports that the annual salary needed to be lowered,” adding, “He even put pressure on the head of the hiring department who opposed the relaxation of the hiring requirements by replacing him.” Additionally, according to employees, Chairman Lee used severe profanity and verbal abuse while receiving correction reports. One employee stated that he felt afraid after being subjected to Chairman Lee’s verbal abuse for nearly an hour.
In the end, the recruitment notice was posted on August 9, 2022, with all national team experience and leader qualification requirements removed, and Mr. A was finally hired after overcoming a competition rate of 32:1. It was found that during the hiring process, Mr. B participated as an interview committee member and gave the highest score to Mr. A.
In addition, the inspection team detected circumstances in which the Korea Sports Council was using sponsorship items for personal purposes and also raised suspicions of embezzlement. Among the marketing revenue items from the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, the Sports Council was allocated items including 20 mobile phones worth approximately 63 million won to the president’s office, but it was found that 14 mobile phones were provided to acquaintances without accounting. Chairman Lee claimed that he was giving it to an international sports official, but the actual recipient was not confirmed.
In addition, the Athletic Association is also accused of using some of the sponsorship items, such as shoes and sunglasses, assigned to the president’s office from 2021 to 2024 without permission or providing them to visitors. It was found that items worth about 16 million won were used for personal purposes.
The inspection team revealed that there was a possibility of breach of trust because the Korea Sports Council purchased tickets worth a total of 187 million won in advance during the operation of the Paris Olympics observation team in violation of procedures and did not refund 32.15 million won worth of tickets that were no longer needed. In addition, circumstances were revealed where Mr. C, a high-ranking official at the National Team Athletes’ Village, requested payment for the purchase of health food and competition uniforms for athletes from Mr. D, the president of a specific organization, with the approval of Chairman Lee. Mr. D has a long relationship with Chairman Lee, and after expressing his desire to take on a specific position in the Paris Olympics delegation early this year, he took the desired position, and paid for the cost of goods worth about 80 million won in the same year.
In addition, the inspection team confirmed other violations of regulations, such as Chairman Lee’s swearing at employees and inappropriate use of business expenses, and plans to notify the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of a total of 11 people, including 7 who are subject to investigation.
Immediately after winning the gold medal in the badminton women’s singles event at the Paris Olympics, Ahn Se-young directly criticized the Korea Badminton Association’s injury management. Afterwards, the controversy spread not only to the Badminton Association but also to sports organizations in general, and with the active intervention of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Badminton Association and sports organizations were put on the chopping block.
