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[이데일리 스타in 이석무 기자] The professional volleyball V-League, which continued its popularity as a popular sport in winter, is being shaken by the’school violence controversy.’ In 2012, 11 active players were permanently expelled, which faced the biggest crisis after the excommunication of match-management, which was at risk for the existence of the league itself.
The excommunication began on the 9th. The women’s professional volleyball Heungkuk Life’s sisters Lee Jae-young and Da-young and those who were known to have worked as volleyball players in elementary and junior high school together posted a long article titled “They are victims of the current volleyball players” on the online community site. They said, “I want to receive a sincere apology,” listing the facts of the twin sisters’ abuse.
The contents were shocking, so many volleyball fans were dubious. As related contents spread rapidly through SNS, sisters Jae-young Lee and Da-young posted a handwritten apology on SNS on the 10th the following day, admitted to the mistake and publicly apologized to the victims. Heungkuk Life Insurance Team also announced a statement of apology, saying, “The players are regretting their wrongdoings when they were students.” “I sincerely apologize to the injured victims.”
Sisters Jae-young Lee and Da-young have left the team dormitory and stayed at home after public apology. The criticism is so high that it is virtually difficult to return to the court this season. Heungkuk Life’s team collapsed, with the left (Lee Jae-young) and the main setter (Da-young Lee) missing. It is still running at No. 1, but recently showed a helpless appearance and fell into a swamp with 3 consecutive losses.
To make matters worse, on the 13th, a controversy arose in men’s volleyball. It was revealed that Song Myung-geun and Shim Gyeong-seop of OK Savings Bank assaulted a junior player in high school and middle school. The two players also admitted to school violence and apologized through the club.
The club said, “The perpetrators apologized to Mr. A by text message.” However, Mr. A, who posted the post, said, “I hope they know that it wasn’t just because I wanted to bully them,” and “I can’t admit or accept nonsense statements and apologies.”
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Given this situation, professional volleyball is now in confusion. He is affirming that additional exposure will come out and the fire will bounce elsewhere.
In fact, the men’s professional volleyball KEPCO revealed that it has conducted a thorough investigation of its team. KEPCO coach Jang Byeong-cheol said, “As the aggression controversy has become visible, players are also agitated,” ahead of the Samsung Fire Department on the 14th. Other clubs are known to have conducted or are conducting their own investigations privately.
The team to which the players identified as the perpetrators belong are considering follow-up measures. Heungkuk Life Insurance and OK Financial Group both said, “We are seriously aware of the situation,” and “we will prepare measures to prevent recurrence and make every effort to manage players.”
However, there is no clear conclusion about the discipline. Since there is no precedent for such an incident in professional volleyball, it is difficult to determine the level of discipline. Apart from the condemned public opinion, the team cannot but care about protecting the players.
There is a similar precedent outside of professional volleyball. In 2018, Nexen Heroes, the first nominated rookie of the year, announced that it was a school violence in the past.
The Korea Baseball Softball Association, which leads Ama Baseball, also imposed a’three-year suspension of qualification’ to Ahn Woo-jin. If you are suspended for more than three years, you will be disqualified from the selection of national representatives. In fact, it blocked the opportunity to be elected as the national representative. However, KBO, who is in charge of professional baseball, did not punish Ahn Woo-jin, saying, “It is difficult to punish in pros for what happened as an amateur.”
The Korea Volleyball Federation (KOVO), which supervises professional volleyball, is also contemplating,’Can I discipline myself in a pro for an incident that happened in my amateur days?’ The grounds for punishment are also not good. First of all, the position is to open the reward and punishment committee after watching the self-discipline of the club.
Instead, KOVO plans to seek ways to eradicate school violence in cooperation with the Korean Volleyball Association. A KOVO official said, “Even if you come to the pro, I think there is a need to make provisions that can be punished by the federation if previous mistakes are confirmed.
After experiencing a big crisis in professional volleyball due to a match-manipulation wave, players, clubs, and officials joined forces to revive the popularity of the league. As a result, today’s professional volleyball has risen to a level comparable to that of professional baseball, which is said to be the most popular sport. In the 2019-20 season, the average ratings for women’s clubs exceeded 1% (1.05%) for the first time in history.
However, due to the controversy over the academia, the hard-earned efforts were on the verge of collapsing. It is a situation that requires intense midnight efforts by league members to revive the deteriorated image.