I'll come clean on all kinds of suspicions Lee Ki-heung, chairman of the Korea Sports Council, officially declared his candidacy on the 23rd (Official)

Dec 20, 2024

Lee Ki-heung, chairman of the Korea Sports Council, met with reporters

Lee Ki-heung, chairman of the Korean Sports Council, will finally hold a press conference on the 23rd to run for the 42nd chairman of the Korean Sports Council.

At 2:30 p.m. on the 23rd, Chairman Lee will hold a press conference at Athens Hall on the 4th floor of the Olympic Parktel in Songpa-gu, Seoul, to announce his intention to seek a third term.

In a press release distributed to the media on the 20th, Chairman Lee Ki-heung of the IOC and the President of the Korea Sports and Olympic Committee wants to have a conversation with all of you in relation to Lee Ki-heung of the 42nd President of the Korea Sports and Olympic Committee as follows. The press conference will be held with simple greetings from Lee Ki-heung and candid answers from journalists. We will make clear the intention of a head-to-head match amid the recent government audit and investigation by the prosecution and police. A press conference was prepared a day before the registration of candidates for the chairman of the Korea Sports Council from the 24th to the 25th.

Last year, Chairman Lee clashed with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on everything, including the appointment of the secretary-general of the Universiade in Chungcheong Province, the appointment of a co-chairman of the National Sports Commission, and the establishment of a liaison office in Lausanne, Switzerland, and the conflict intensified earlier this year when the presidential office demanded an audit of the ministry. The goal of emotion with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has deepened uncontrollably amid a flurry of allegations of reducing the ceremony for the Paris Olympics, controversy over the Paris Olympics observers, allegations of misconduct in veterinary contracts, and fraudulent hiring. Following the parliamentary audit, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Government Joint Public Service Inspection Team of the Cabinet Office, and the Audit Office were followed in October. Ahead of the Korea Sports and Fair Committee's review of the approval of three consecutive terms in November, the National Policy Joint Public Service Inspection Team requested the National Police Agency to investigate eight employees, including Chairman Lee, for reasons such as illegal hiring of employees, requesting to sponsor goods (receiving money and valuables), and private use of sponsored goods. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism notified the suspension of duties under Article 52-3 (request for investigation of non-perpetrators, etc.) of the. Chairman Lee immediately filed a lawsuit for the cancellation of his/her suspension of his/her duties with the Seoul Administrative Court, and the court rejected it on the 12th, and the suspension of his/her duties was maintained. Chairman Lee filed an appeal with the High Court of Appeals.

Leaving Chairman Lee Ki-heung

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's anti-corruption crime investigation team executed and started searching for seizure warrants at the main building of the Olympic Hall in Songpa-gu, Seoul, the Jincheon National Training Center, and the employees' homes on the 18th, and all-round pressure on Chairman Lee began. Regarding the request for an investigation, the inspection team of the National Assembly's inspection team said, "1 Suspicion that the president of the Korea Sports Council pushed ahead with hiring a specific person (the president's child's college friend) through unfair instructions when hiring employees of the Jincheon National Training Center. ②Securing a statement that a high-ranking official of the National Sports Village received approval by requesting the president of a sports organization to pay for the purchase of health food and sportswear for athletes with the approval of the president of the sports association ③ Checking a number of inappropriate words and actions by the president of the Korean Sports Council ④ Checking that the Paris Olympics observers were also improperly operated, ⑤ identified that the Korean Sports Council's system of recruiting and managing sponsored goods was very lax and negligent ⑥ confirmed that there were a number of problems with the operation of the sports association" he once said. Accordingly, the police are focusing on charges of obstruction of business, bribery to third parties, embezzlement and breach of trust. In particular, Chairman Lee is accused of giving a resume to athlete village executive B in the process of hiring his child's friend A as a training planner at Jincheon National Training Center in 2022 and instructing him to ease his career and qualifications (national experience, second-class professional sports instructor certificate). After replacing the head of the recruitment department against this, and deleting career and qualification requirements in the job posting, B finally selected A, who gave the highest score in the interview, as an employee.

However, Chairman Lee flatly denied allegations that he was illegally hired during an interview at Incheon International Airport last month. "I don't know at all", he said. "I need a supervisor to manage the female athlete's accommodation, so I asked him to pick a woman. As a former national team player, I asked who would come and do it on the condition of 2 million won a month, and various people from the related degree holders, referees, and leaders asked me to release them, and I only asked them to make my salary real with 25 million to 30 million won." When asked "Didn't he recommend his friend?", he strongly denied "Not at all".

Chairman Lee Ki-heung also left room for the IOC's executive committee meeting held earlier this month regarding the absence of his name on the list of IOC members under the age of 70, saying, `The extension of the term of NOC-eligible members who are not individuals or IF-eligible will be discussed again after they are elected as the president of the Korean Olympic Committee.' In addition, since Yoon Suk Yeol recently revealed allegations of election interference by high-ranking government officials through interviews amid impeachment after declaring martial law, various remarks on the situation surrounding the three-term challenge, including additional revelations targeting the government or the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, could be poured out at the press conference.

Meanwhile, the election for the chairman of the Korea Sports Council will take place on January 14 next year. While eight candidates, including honorary professor Kang Shin-wook of Dankook University, Kang Tae-sun, chairman of the Seoul Sports Council, and former IOC member Yoo Seung Min (in alphabetical order), have challenged, attention is also being paid to how many candidates will be registered from the 24th to the 25th. Each candidate must deposit 70 million won in deposits to the Election Commission at the time of registration and must win more than 20% of the votes to receive the deposit back. Candidates such as Yoo Seung Min and Kang Shin-wook agreed on the need to unify candidates 'Ban Ki-heung' to win the election, but it remains to be seen whether it can actually be accomplished.

sky4us@sportschosun.com