Nat'l Olympic chief accused of negligence, rules violations while leading table tennis body
South Korean Olympic chief Ryu Seung-min on Monday was accused of violating rules regarding financial incentives while serving as head of the national table tennis governing body.
The Korea Sport Ethics Center, under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, announced it will demand discipline on two current and former executives of a national sports federation for professional malpractice, and on four other individuals, including the head of that organization, for professional negligence and rules violations.
While the ethics center did not identify the organization in question, it has been confirmed as the Korea Table Tennis Association (KTTA), with Ryu, who served as KTTA chief from 2019 to 2024, being one of the four in the latter group.
Ryu was elected as president of the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee (KSOC) in January this year.
The KSOC will now review the ethics center's demand on penalizing its own leader and an official there said appealing the ethics center's demand remains a possibility.
According to the ethics center, the two executives either handed out or received monetary incentives after securing sponsorship deals, even though the KTTA rules executives from taking any financial rewards.
During his KSOC election campaign, Ryu was accused by his rival candidates of receiving incentives for winning sponsorship contracts. Ryu denied he had not received any money for securing deals worth 2.85 billion won ($2.01 million) and that the KTTA had come clean in annual financial audits by the KSOC.
Though Ryu himself did not receive monetary incentives, he may still be held responsible for the illicit rewards paid out on his watch as KTTA president.
Ryu said he would fully accept the decision by the ethics center but defended the KTTA's practice of giving out cash rewards for securing sponsorships.
Ryu explained that incentives were put in place to encourage "aggressive marketing activities" for the KTTA, which often struggled financially with table tennis not being a major sport in the country.
"I regret that I did not look into rules carefully, even if decisions were made for the good of the sport," Ryu said.
Separately, the center also noted that the KTTA replaced a player on the 2021 Olympic team without going through a proper process. According to the center, a KTTA official first made a case for one player for the national team, but then Ryu pointed out another player had a better track record, which prompted the change. The center said the KTTA should have convened a competition committee meeting to review the proposed roster change. (Yonhap)
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