“Approve reappointment of sports organization executives, not me”
The president of the Korean Sports Federation, Lee Ki-heung, has asked the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to approve the abolition of the rule limiting the number of consecutive terms for the heads of sports organizations. He also added a proviso that he would not have to serve consecutive terms.
The Korea Sports Federation held an extraordinary delegates' meeting on Thursday at the Olympic Parktel in Bangdong, Songpa-gu, Seoul, and passed an amendment to its articles of association to remove the rule limiting the number of consecutive terms for the heads of sports organizations, which was approved by the board of directors. The existing articles of association stipulate that officers, including the president, can serve a four-year term and be reappointed once, and from the third term onward, they must go through the Sports Fairness Commission. On the same day, the board passed an amendment to the articles of association that eliminated the Sports Fairness Committee review process.
The reason for the amendment was due to personnel issues, the NOC continued to explain. Local sports federations and sports organizations are always short of qualified people to serve as executives. However, some have pointed out that the likes of Lee Ki-heung (re-elected) and Chung Mong-kyu (three-term president of the Korea Football Association) are pre-positioning themselves for long-term power.
In response, Minister of Culture, Sports, and Tourism Yoo Yoo-chon vowed to “never approve the amendment to the articles of association” at a meeting with the sports sector on the 2nd. Minister Yoo said, “The KFA receives a huge government budget of 42 billion won, but school sports and elite sports are falling into disrepair. In this situation, what's the point of changing the articles of association to run for office once more?” “As one of the various discussions to increase the autonomy of the sports world, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is discussing the idea of directly granting budgets to local sports federations and sports organizations,” he said. Currently, the Korean Sports Federation receives the budget and distributes it to each sports organization.
“I've said many times that I'm not changing the articles of association to run for a third term,” said Lee Ki-heung, the president of the Korean Sports Federation, “so it's okay to exclude me, but we need to change the rules for the consecutive terms of other sports organization presidents. There are not enough people who can serve as officers of sports organizations or local sports federations, and the city and district presidents are paying their own money to serve, so we cannot create a fair committee to review their reappointments. I hope the Ministry of Culture will approve the revised proposal.” Lee's proposal was met with applause from the delegates.
Lee also refuted Minister Yoo's remarks point by point. “It's really wrong to say that the KFA spends hundreds of billions of dollars as it pleases,” Lee said, adding, “It's all discussed and approved by the Ministry of Culture. There is no way that the KFA can be used as a reader in a situation where it is subject to frequent audits by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, audits by the National Audit Office, and national audits.”
In addition, Lee said, “The courts make the judgment on the interpretation of the law, and the Constitutional Court makes the final interpretation of the law. Any other interpretation is arbitrary,” he said. The Sports Council has expressed the opinion that the MOC's budget execution may violate the National Sports Promotion Act. In response, Lee Jung-woo, director of the MOCA, said, “The authority to interpret and enforce the law lies with the government departments. The government interprets and enforces laws, not violates them,” which Lee refuted.
Lee also called for a public debate with the minister. This is a repeat of a proposal he made at the D-30 event at the Paris Olympics last month. “In order to discuss and clarify the future direction of sports policy, Minister Yoo should come to the debate. I will also participate.”