[Exclusive] What's Happening at the Jeonnam Provincial Sports Festival... Chronic Issue of 'Illegal Athletes' Detected Again

Taekwondo Male and Female Preliminary Matches: 9 Mokpo City Athletes Found

Repeated 'Illegal Players' Cause Headaches... Calls to "End the Bad Practice"

Provincial Sports Council: "Will Issue Apology and Official Statement After Thorough Investigation"

The 'Jeonnam Provincial Sports Festival,' which should be a festival where Jeonnam residents share friendship through sports and enhance the health and pride of the residents, has been tainted again by the detection of fraudulent athletes.

As such athletes are caught every time the festival is held, there are calls for institutional measures to prevent the participation of 'fraudulent athletes,' which has become a bad practice.

Opening ceremony of the Jeonnam Provincial Sports Festival on the 17th.
Photo by Kim Geonwan yacht@

According to the Jeonnam Sports Council on the 18th, the 63rd Jeonnam Provincial Sports Festival is being held at the Yeonggwang Sportium General Stadium until the 20th. The opening ceremony took place at 5:30 PM the previous day.

This event is the largest competition in Jeonnam, where 22 cities and counties in the Jeonnam region compete for the honor of their hometowns. A total of 7,134 people, including officials and athletes, participated.

The event budget is 3.4 billion KRW, including the Disabled Sports Festival, funded solely by Yeonggwang County. Yeonggwang County hosted the event for the first time in 15 years. Although the county united and devoted all its efforts to a successful event, the detection of fraudulent athletes not only rendered the meaning of 'harmony' meaningless but also left an unsightly scar.

So far, the fraudulent athletes identified are nine players who participated as Mokpo City athletes in the preliminary Taekwondo competition held on the 13th and 14th. They include three adults and six student professional athletes, who won one silver and two bronze medals in the women's division.

The athlete recruitment guidelines require that participants must have resided in the relevant area for a certain period or be born there, but it was confirmed that these athletes did not meet these criteria.

They participated for money, committing acts far from the spirit of sportsmanship. The bigger problem is that due to the selfish greed of adults, only the innocent student athletes inevitably face disciplinary action. Jeonnam Sports High School immediately conducted a full investigation of all participating athletes the day before and sent the fraudulent athletes back to their schools.

On the 18th, the 63rd Jeonnam Provincial Sports Festival volleyball match took place. Yeonggwang-gun and Sinan-gun, the host locations, are competing in the round of 16.
[Photo by Kim Geonwan yacht@]

The Jeonnam Taekwondo Association has been excluded from the provincial sports council member sports organizations since 2016 due to the lack of integration between recreational and professional sports. The Taekwondo events and operations this time were conducted by the former Jeonnam Taekwondo Association.

An elder in the provincial sports community said, "Buying fraudulent athletes with money and match-fixing in some cities and counties have become customary every year," adding, "Regarding complaints that fraudulent athletes from cities and counties were included in other main events, the Jeonnam Provincial Sports Festival Organizing Committee, which hosts the event, and the Jeonnam Sports Council could not even begin a full investigation and proceeded with the opening ceremony," expressing frustration.

In response, Song Jin-ho, president of the Jeonnam Sports Council, said, "We will consider an official apology and statement after a thorough investigation, and we will also confirm ways to support the students," adding, "It is difficult to conduct a full investigation of athletes currently competing in each event."

He also added, "We will supplement the various problems that have occurred every year and establish a thorough verification system starting from the next competition."