The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (hereinafter referred to as the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) is planning to decide by the end of this month whether to approve the revision of the articles of incorporation of the Korean Sports Association, which is the focus of controversy. An official from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said, "As time goes by, there is a possibility that there is a possibility of disruption to the election schedule for the presidents of each sports organization as well as the next elections for the Korean Sports Hall, so we plan to confirm approval within this month."

The Korean Sports Association revised the articles of incorporation at the regular delegates' meeting on April 10th. The main point of the amendment to the Articles of Incorporation is that in the section related to the election of the president of Article 24,'If an officer including the president wishes to register as a candidate, the office must quit by 90 days before the expiration date of the president's term of office'.

In order to prevent the administrative gap, the sports association passed the revision of the articles of incorporation to'suspend the job' instead of'resigning' as the former president 90 days. The Athletic Association emphasized that there is a potential to infringe the president's term of office (four years), which was guaranteed by the previous articles of association, and that it cannot respond smoothly if there is a gap in the chairmanship at a time when a prompt response to international issues is required due to the delay of one year at the Tokyo Olympics.

However, even after 4 months, the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism have been shutting down about approval. (Refer to [Covering File] Delegates of the Sports Council, “Training the Time of the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism.”


If the amendment of the articles of incorporation is approved as requested by the Korean Sports Association, the current Chairman of Korea Sports Chairman Ki-heung Lee can run for the election of the next president, held in mid-January next year, while remaining as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). In addition to the premium of the incumbent sports venue, the long-established connections and the fact that he is an incumbent IOC member, the re-election is the strongest point in the domestic sports world.

However, this is a scenario where people who do not want Lee Ki-heung to be re-elected will naturally complain. If the articles of incorporation are revised according to the will of the athletic meet, Chairman Lee Ki-heung will actually run several tens of meters ahead of other candidates. If the Ministry of Culture, who knows this situation well, approves it, there is a possibility that the originality will come to the Ministry of Culture and Culture.

However, it is not easy for the Ministry of Culture and Sports to refuse to approve the articles of association. If he refuses to approve the articles of incorporation, Chairman Ki-heung Lee must resign 90 days prior to the expiration of his term in order to run for office, which will result in his resignation and immediate loss of his IOC membership. Even if Chairman Lee succeeds in re-election, he cannot automatically return to the IOC, and even if another person is elected as the sports venue, becoming an IOC member is a separate problem. Considering the extremely difficult situation and national interests of a new IOC member, it is difficult to choose this one. This is the point in which the worries of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism are bound to deepen.


An official from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said, "In the end, a certain mechanism must be prepared to ensure the neutrality of the elections for the Korean Athletic Center. Election fairness and neutrality must be ensured so that candidates other than Chairman Lee Ki-heung do not pose a problem. I can do it."

The main point of the election neutrality plan agreed by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism so far is to increase the number of days for campaigning and to select electors by lottery. According to the current regulations, a person running for the Korea Sports Association can hold an official election campaign for 12 days, and this will be expanded to the 20th.

In this way, candidates who are new to the sports venue, except for Chairman Lee Ki-heung, have time to fully inform the sports world and electors of their aspirations and abilities. On the contrary, Chairman Ki-heung Lee's incumbent advantage decreases, contributing to election neutrality.

In addition, electors are now selected by lottery for those recommended by each organization. This allows each head of the organization to recommend candidates for electoral candidates in favor of a particular presidential candidate. In order to prevent this, the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Sports decided to do a lottery rather than a recommendation from the time they decided on candidates for elections. Random drawing is expected to have a positive effect on election neutrality, as the elected elector cannot know which presidential candidate will vote.

A member of the domestic sports industry said, "I think the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is more likely to approve the amendment of the articles of incorporation rather than rejecting it. This is because the hard-elected IOC members should not be blown away because of domestic regulations. It is necessary to come up with a plan to strictly observe the ethics. Only then can the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Sports can do'win-win' with each other."