[On-the-spot video +] "Request for dismissal of the chairman... We will help the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism not to damage the players."

[Anchor]
The final results of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's investigation into the Badminton Association, which began after the disclosure of Ahn Se-young, will be released today.

When the interim results of the investigation were announced last month, they have already pointed out the management of the team and the issue of donations, but today it is expected to include measures against related personnel.

Let's go to the scene.

[Lee Jungwoo / Sports director of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism]
I will announce the final results of the Badminton Korea Association survey. In the wake of the interview with Ahn Se-young, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism formed an investigation team on August 10 and investigated five areas: support for the national team, unreasonable system improvement, details of subsidized projects, the operation status of the association, and workplace harassment within the association. During the survey, a total of 36 individual opinions, including head coach Kim Hak-kyun and player Ahn Se-young, were heard out of a total of 51 national team players.

The remaining 15 were unable to participate in international competitions, prepare for the National Sports Festival, and due to personal reasons. As a result of listening to the players' opinions, what the players wanted was not much different from Ahn Se-young. In order to support the national team and improve the unreasonable system, individual opinions were collected on marketing experts, officials from the Korea Business Badminton Federation, officials from the business team, and former national team players. The investigation team also conducted a face-to-face survey of association officials except Chairman Kim Taek-gyu.

Chairman Kim expressed his intention to reject it at the site of a face-to-face investigation on September 26. The investigation team extended the end of the investigation from October 11 to October 31 and requested Chairman Kim to attend several times, but eventually failed to conduct a face-to-face investigation within the investigation period. Chairman Kim will be given the opportunity to submit his opinion within the one-month objection period given after notification of the investigation results. I will present the main findings.

The announcement at the interim briefing on September 10th will focus on the results of the measures. We will innovate old practices and greatly expand support for the national team by reflecting the opinions of the badminton national team as much as possible. First, we will drastically improve the injury management system for players. First, I will guarantee each player's choice from injury diagnosis to rehabilitation treatment. Currently, it was being decided on a time-to-time basis without a clear regulation.

In the future, the player will manage the injury at the medical institution he wants. Second, we will expand the medical personnel and space of Jincheon National Training Center. Currently, there is a lack of medical support compared to national athletes, so there is a phenomenon of being crowded at a specific time or delayed in medical treatment. Starting next year, national team players will be able to undergo medical check immediately after selecting national team players like professional sports players. Based on this, we will make athletes receive care according to their physical condition.

Third, I will improve the absurd culture related to the life of the athletes' village. Badminton players were extremely limited from staying out and going out on public holidays and weekends. It's a matter of human rights to not let them go out even though they don't have training. In the future, we will allow you to go out and stay out in principle and improve it so that you can restrict it only if you are close to an international competition or have special reasons such as an epidemic. I will get rid of irrationalities such as cleaning, laundry, and reporting when I go out. After Ahn Se-young's recommendation in April this year, the practice was eliminated within the women's team, but it was confirmed that it is still in the men's team.

At the end of September, the Korean Sports Association also revised the guidelines for the operation of reinforcement training for the national team to prohibit private business instructions. Starting next year, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will conduct a semi-annual monitoring and inspect all national athletes. We will abolish early morning training and mountain training in the athletes' village, which have been mandatory since April 2023. The players were more concerned about the risk of injury than the effect of training. In the future, we will change the training so that we can train according to the situation of the athletes in each event at that time.

Fourth, we will mobilize national team leaders and strengthen support for sports science so that badminton players can conduct customized training for singles and doubles systematically and scientifically. It actively reflected the players' opinions that the youngest players exercise among themselves due to the lack of coaching staff, and that the training method is always the same as a few years ago. Fifth, I will guarantee the participation of the athlete's personal trainer in the national team training. Currently, there is no related system, but most stocks virtually do not allow it. After the 2023 Qatar Asian Cup, we will expand the personal trainer system prepared by the Korea Football Association to other sports.

Sixth, when the national badminton players return home from the international competition, they will not enter the athletes' village immediately and guarantee a certain period of rest. The players struggled a lot with jet lag, difficulty in managing their bodies, and stress. Seventh, we will help the first-team and second-team players strategically participate in international competitions. While first-class players worry about shortening their lives because they have played in too many competitions, second-class players boast themselves as national players who have no chance to compete in international competitions.

Our players also need to follow the example of other countries that strategically guarantee participation in the competition according to the level of international competitions. We will support our team to naturally replace generations by strengthening the performance of the entire team from a mid- to long-term perspective without rushing to immediate results. Eighth, when the Badminton Association makes important policy decisions regarding the national squad, it will at least make sure that the opinions of the leaders are heard. Currently, there are few such communication channels.

Next, we will improve the unreasonable system that remains only in the Badminton Association and guarantee the rights and interests of the players. First, I will remove the restrictions on athletes from international competitions. First of all, the association also regulated that national players participate in overseas professional leagues and overseas invitation games at their own expense. I will do away with this. In addition, the restriction on non-national athletes from international competitions will also be removed. Currently, he has been a member of the national team for five years, and there is a regulation of 28 years for men and 27 years for women, but it will be abolished.

The squad is not only infringing on athletes' right to freedom to exercise their jobs, but also depriving future national athletes of the opportunity to experience international competitions. He pointed out that a player who failed the national team selection match has to manage the world ranking, but he is making it impossible. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism recommended correction on September 12, but the association is still lukewarm. Order to correct this. Second, I will strengthen the rights of the players in the sponsorship contract. I will guarantee the player's choice of racquets and shoes that are directly related to performance.

Recently, the association announced that it will allow autonomy only temporarily, exclusively and exceptionally for Ahn Se-young's shoes until the sponsor's contract change consultation is completed. Do not approach competitive goods as a benefit to a particular player. This is the universal right of all athletes. If we order the association to correct it and the association continues to stick to its lukewarm attitude or if further consultations do not proceed smoothly, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will adjust it. We will also return the right to expose the player's sponsor logo on the national team uniform.

According to the association's regulations, one of the five logos that can be exposed is stated to be a player's right, but all five currently only expose the association's sponsors. The association says it will allow players' rights after March 2025, when the existing sponsor contract ends. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism requires players to take action according to the regulations if they want, even before the contract ends. Third, I will improve the method of selecting the national badminton doubles team. Currently, 70% of the performance and 30% of the evaluation committee's evaluation score. Currently, luck plays a bigger role than skill in measuring performance by drawing, and subjective evaluation enables arbitrary selection, so both are problematic. The
investigation team heard various opinions, including national teams, business team officials, and former national badminton players, and recommended abolishing the subjective evaluation altogether, selecting up to 32nd in the world, and introducing improvement measures such as separate selection of junior national teams under the age of 23.

If the association introduces such an improvement plan, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will help increase the number of national team players so that no players will be harmed in the process of change. This measure takes into account the aspect that it is desirable for the association to come up with an improvement plan rather than the government directly deciding how to select players. Fourth, improve the annual salary and contract period of badminton players. On Sept. 24, they held a joint meeting with officials from the Badminton Federation's business team and formed a consensus on salary, elimination of discrimination against academic background, abolition of salary increase rate restrictions, reduction of contract period, and recognition of the maximum salary of excellent players and exceptions to contract period.

Considering that 15 out of 23 unemployment teams belong to local governments, a meeting of provincial and provincial sports directors presided over by Minister Yoo In-chon on October 29 urged local governments to participate in voluntary improvement of the unemployment federation. As the Korean Federation of Business Badminton strives to solve its own problems, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will fully support it. Finally, the irrational disciplinary action against national team players is abolished. It was recommended to abolish it immediately on September 12th. As the association has also expressed its position to revise it immediately, we will continue to check the implementation status. It's about the subsidy law.

We will deal with the violation of the subsidy law strictly. First, the promotion system, the youth club league business. As a preliminary procedure for the return of subsidies for violations of the subsidy law, we requested the association to submit an opinion on October 30th, and will finally notify the amount of return and sanctions after deliberation by the subsidy fraudulent supply council. Under the Subsidy Act, the responsibility for the return of violations lies with the subsidiary, the Korea Sports Council. On October 29, we requested the Songpa Police Station to investigate the violation of the subsidy law, sponsored goods, embezzlement, and breach of trust.

In addition, the chairman directly responsible for the violation of the subsidy law is dismissed, and the secretary-general is asked to impose heavy punishment. The person in charge also demands disciplinary action. Second, we call for the resumption of the standing badminton trial. The association unilaterally suspended operations and effectively fired the standing judges. This act is a violation of the association's articles of association because it has not been resolved by the board of directors.

In addition, we have not prepared measures to ensure fairness in referees and increase the financial burden following the abolition of the standing trial. As the association argued, if there was a problem of receiving duplicate allowances from some standing judges, appropriate measures such as disciplinary action against the parties should be taken, but it is inappropriate to abolish the system itself for this reason. We will deal with the rest of the related matters strictly in accordance with the subsidy law. We urge correction of the association's overall inappropriate operation status.

First, we demand the return of the remuneration from the executives who have been paid substantially in violation of the Badminton Association's predecessor. The association paid 68 million won in success fees to the vice chairman and executive director, and paid 1 million won and 500,000 won to the chairman and executive director as bonuses for the Lunar New Year holiday, respectively. Second, the association should make guidelines and report them to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism so that executives do not spend their own budgets sloppily. Please pay taxes on the allowance received by the executive director that has not been withheld.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism notified the customs office on October 30th. Third, in violation of the association's regulations, we demand the cancellation of the designation of the designated official ball. A company in which an association executive is employed violates the reason for exclusion that cannot be designated as an official product. It also calls for warning measures against employees who violate the regulations. Fourth, we demand the dismissal of the members of the association and the Sports Fair Committee who led the unreasonable decision. Some members of the committee have lifted the suspension on the grounds that they have ignored disciplinary action or simply appealed to those who have been sentenced to child abuse in the first trial. The investigation team reported the chairman of the association to related agencies under the Labor Standards Act on Oct. 28. As a result of a face-to-face survey of 17 out of 18 employees of the association, it was confirmed that abusive language and abusive language reported in the media were true.