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| KBO President Jung Un-chan. (Provided by KBO) 2020.12.11/News1 © News1 Reporter Jinhwan Kim |
Korea Baseball Commission (KBO) governor Jung Un-chan, who was three days before the end of his term, made the final decision before leaving. Heo Min Kiwoom, the chairman of the Board of Directors of Heroes, who was controversial for activities outside of the club’s official training, such as catch ball and batting practice, was suspended for two months.
On the 28th, KBO decided on such disciplinary action against Chairman Heo Min, who caused the controversy over the privatization of the club and the suspicion of Kiwoom fan inspections recently discussed at the reward and punishment committee.
On this day, KBO punished the Kiwoom club and Kim Chi-hyun, who are under suspicion of fan inspections, with a severe warning and punishment, and Heo Min, the chairman of the board of directors, with a two-month suspension.
It is an unusual decision to suspend the duties of Chairman Huh along with a severe warning to the club and the manager.
Already, the reward and punishment committee discussed disciplinary action for the past two days on the 22nd and 23rd, and sternly warned against this situation.
However, the announcement was postponed as Governor Jeong Un-chan, who received a report of the results of the compensation and punishment committee at the time, expressed his intention to consider the final decision. On the 24th, no conclusion was finally reached, and on that day, it was finally decided that Chairman Huh was suspended for two months.
The disciplinary action on this day is drawing attention because it is a blitz decision by President Jung, who is about to end his term. In the KBO, the term of office of governor Jung Un-chan ends in 2020, and the new governor Ji-taek Ji-taek will be appointed from 2021.
KBO said, “As the club’s chairmanship, it was judged that the damage to the league’s value by causing social controversy was an act of damaging the dignity.” Article 1 In accordance with the special case regarding the authority of the governor, a sanction for suspension of two months was imposed and the prevention of recurrence was urged.”
According to KBO officials, President Jung judged that this was an act that disrupted the league order, such as abandoning the duty of professional sports that the club should put fans first and destroying basic trust among players.
Furthermore, it was also an important factor in making this decision through the results of the Reward and Penalty Committee in March, stating that Kiwoom will respond strongly within the limits set by the KBO rules in case of a serious issue that damages the value of the league in the future.
In March this year, the KBO Reward and Penalty Committee received a lot of criticism for being a relatively weak discipline, such as a fine of 20 million won, for the suspicion of former CEO Jang-seok Lee’s’outdoor management’.