The Korea Badminton Association has begun to ‘correct’ the recent allegations of maladministration related to referees. According to a report by Sports Chosun on the 9th, the Badminton Association will hold a sports fairness committee meeting today to deliberate on the issue of ‘suspicions of poor officiating at national tournaments and ignoring disciplinary violations’ at the source. This is in response to the fact that the Korea Sports Council, which received a related complaint, recently held a referee committee and confirmed that the Badminton Association’s own discipline for ‘poor judgment’ violated regulations, such as not going through the Sports Fairness Commission procedure, and took corrective measures.

The Badminton Association of Korea (BAK) has been accused of trying to sweep under the rug the case of the umpire chairperson’s ‘score manipulation’ at the high school national tournament held in April, but when it became an issue later, it tried to use an unregulated procedure. According to the regulations, disciplinary cases must go through the deliberation of the Sports Fairness Commission, the determination of the level of discipline, and a report to the board of directors, but the association held a special meeting chaired by the tournament organizer, who has no authority to deliberate on discipline, and proceeded to discipline with a cotton bat.

The Badminton Association apologized for the violation of the regulations that omitted the Sports Commission and said, “We will strictly handle the related issues again at the Sports Commission.” In particular, the investigation further revealed that the chairman of the refereeing committee at the time made an outrageous mistake, causing the player A to suffer severe emotional distress. Player A, who was competing in both singles and doubles at the time, complained of an injury at 6-11 in the second set after dropping the first set in his first singles match. Player A was aware of the rule that if the match was stopped due to injury and he was disqualified, he would not be eligible to play the remaining doubles, but he expressed his intention to play the singles match to the end, even if he had to stand.

However, for some reason, the chairman of the tournament ignored the rules, which the student-athlete was aware of, and stopped the match at 6-11, treating the remaining game as if it had been played and manipulating the score to 6-21. After recovering from a minor injury, the student-athlete returned to compete in doubles and won. However, the federation’s botched judgment was later revealed, and as a result, he was criticized for competing in doubles when he was ‘ineligible’. As a result, Player A became a victim of misunderstanding and suffered a great deal of emotional trauma, even though he had competed in doubles normally according to the judgment of the referee chairman, according to the association.

This grave error by the umpire chairman, who ‘passed off’ the basic rules listed in the tournament outline, was also pointed out by the Korean Sports Federation’s umpire committee, and is expected to be a major factor in determining the level of discipline by the association’s sports fairness committee in the future.

Regarding the suspicion of illegal recruitment of permanent umpires, the Badminton Association also expressed its sincerity to the investigation by the Korea Sports Federation and the Sports Ethics Center and humbly accepted any measures taken. The allegations of fraudulent recruitment of permanent referees were filed by Woo Hyung-ho, a former permanent referee who applied for the open recruitment but was rejected. According to the complaint, the chairman of the referee committee had inappropriate meetings with certain applicants in private before the 토토 interview process, and the association’s referee affairs staff made comments in a meeting with acquaintances ahead of the open recruitment process that foreshadowed the rejection of certain applicants, grossly violating the fairness of the recruitment process.

Along with the ‘score manipulation’ scandal, the KOC is also conducting an in-depth investigation into the referee recruitment process and securing statements from those involved. A representative from the Badminton Association said, “We are working diligently on the investigation by submitting the data requested by the Sports Ministry and documents in response to inquiries regarding the referee recruitment complaints.” “We will humbly accept any action taken by the KFA based on the results of the investigation, and we will become an association that corrects its mistakes in the future.”