Sports ministry announces ‘strong institutional improvements and severe legal penalties’ related to investigation into BKA

Lee Jung-woo, director of the Sports Bureau of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, makes an interim announcement on the investigation of the Badminton Korea Association at the Government Complex in Seoul on September 10. Reporter Lee Jun-heon

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) has shown a strong commitment to improving the outdated system in response to the Badminton Korea Association (BKA)’s wrongful practices raised by Olympic gold medalist An Se-young (22, Samsung Life Insurance) who revealed them in this year’s Paris Olympics. At the same time, the ministry also hinted at the possibility of severe disciplinary action in connection with the alleged misuse of subsidies.

On September 10, the ministry held an interim briefing on its investigation into the BKA, where it said it would improve the sponsorship contract method and the way the players of the national team are selected and compete each other, and enhance fairness in selecting them, and also mentioned a possibility of punishment for the alleged misuse of subsidies.

Lee Jung-woo, director of the sports bureau at the MCST, said, "We will allow players to freely choose items that have a great impact on their performance, such as shoes and rackets." Currently, the BKA has signed a sponsorship agreement with Yonex on the premise that the national players' clothing, shoes, and rackets will all be its products. The sponsorship is reportedly worth around 4.5 billion won a year, including cash and in-kind.

The ministry also said it would meddle in the regulations on the selection of national players, on the restriction on participation in international competitions, and on the salary cap for players of corporate-owned teams based on their academic background.

Lee said, “We will focus on creating fair alternatives for the selection of doubles national players, which has a high proportion of qualitative evaluation.”

He added, "We will recommend abolishing the provision that allows players to participate in international competitions as general players rather than national players only at a certain age (28 years old for men and 27 years old for women) as we believe it unduly restricts their freedom."

Currently, the Business Badminton Federation applies different contract rules for players based on their educational background. For example, a high school graduate is subject to a seven-year contract with a salary cap of 50 million won and a university graduate a five-year contract with a salary cap of 60 million won. “Salary discrimination based on educational background should be eliminated, and the contract period should be shortened,” Lee said. “We will support federations and clubs to come up with alternative solutions.”

The ministry also made it clear that the head of the BKA could be accused of embezzlement and breach of trust for buying equipment with subsidized funds and then receiving the additional equipment from the vendor in the form of “payback.”It also pointed out, "It is wrong to pay 10 percent of the sponsorship amount as a success fee to executives who recruited sponsors," adding, "It is also a violation of regulations to pay commissions by contracting with companies run by executives." Lee also said, "We will issue a disposition notice for violations of the subsidy law, such as cancellation of the grant decision, order to return subsidies, and imposition of sanctions surcharges." This could result in a fine of more than 10 billion won to the BKA.

“Considering the schedule of international competitions, we have heard the opinions of 22 players, including An Se-young, and will meet with 20 more,” Lee said, adding, “We will announce a comprehensive final result later this month, including the systematization of national team management.”

Earlier, shortly after winning the gold medal in the women's singles badminton at the Paris Olympics in August, An strongly pointed out the problems of the national team's injury management and operation direction and expressed her intention that it is "difficult to play for the national team." Since then, she has not attended the press conference for Olympic medalists, causing a big stir.

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.