Candidates running for the 42nd presidential election of the Korea Sports Council, which selects the “Sports President,” held an “anti-Lee Ki-heung” meeting and decided to push for a unified candidate. Although it is the first time to unify, it is pointed out that it is not easy to narrow differences over the “unification method,” which is the biggest mountain.
Park Chang-beom, former president of the Korea Wushu Association, Kang Shin-wook, emeritus professor at Dankook University, Yoo Seung Min, former president of the Korea Table Tennis Association, and Ahn Sang-soo, former mayor of Incheon, held an emergency meeting at Hotel Naru Seoul in Mapo-gu, Seoul on the 17th and agreed on the big framework of “unification.”
After about two hours of meetings, they announced two agreements: ▷ to achieve a single candidate that the people and sportsmen want, and ▷ to finally decide after narrowing the gap by the 23rd, a day before the registration of candidates (24-25th).
The candidates showed a strong will to unify the current chairman Lee Ki-heung in order to block him from serving a third term. Candidate Kang Shin-wook said, “I hope the sports community’s desire for change is great, and candidate Ahn Sang-soo emphasized, “There has never been such a public interest in the election of the chairman of the sports association. In order to become the right candidate that the people want, we need to unite our minds to achieve unification.”
Candidate Yoo Seung Min said, “I hope we can share our opinions on various topics for the development of the sports world because there is still time until candidate registration.” Candidate Park Chang-beom, who had fasting for 11 days earlier, insisting on the withdrawal of Chairman Lee Ki-heung’s bid for the third term, said, “We will respond to the people’s earnest hearts and strive for the development of sports in Korea in the future.” 스포츠토토
They agreed to meet several more times to discuss specific methods, and will also contact other candidates, including Kang Tae-sun, chairman of the Seoul Sports Council, and Oh Joo-young, former president of the Korea Sepak Takraw Association, who did not attend the meeting.
But like all elections, the biggest stumbling block to the unification of opposition parties is “methodology.” This is because it is difficult for candidates who have the inner circle of “unification around me” to come up with a unification that can be easily accepted and agreed upon.
In fact, during the 2021 sports presidential election, when Chairman Lee Ki-heung won re-election, it was close to unification and was canceled.
Lee Jong-geol, a former five-term lawmaker who served as the president of the Korea Basketball Association, drew controversy when he backed Kang Shin-wook just one day after he announced his candidacy, but withdrew his support and expressed his intention to complete the race right before the deadline for registration. Eventually, Chairman Lee Ki-heung won 46.35 percent of the vote, comfortably beating Kang Shin-wook (25.68 percent) and Lee Jong-gul (21.43 percent). If Lee succeeded in unifying the candidates, it would not be certain that he would win.
Choi Dong-ho, a sports critic, pointed out, “It is difficult to come up with a unified method that each candidate camp can agree on, and some candidate camps have their own calculations that they are likely to win the election, so it will be difficult to finally reach a single candidate.”
The registration period for candidates for the chairman of the sports association will be from the 24th to the 25th. Chairman Lee Ki-heung is expected to officially announce his candidacy on the 23rd, a day before the registration of candidates, and strongly express the legitimacy of his bid for the third term. The election will be held on January 14 next year with a vote of electors consisting of representatives from the sports association, member sports organizations, 17 provincial sports associations, 228 municipal sports associations, and 228 municipal sports associations.
