Gov't vows to halt subsidies for scandal-hit boxing body

SEOUL, Sept. 2 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's government said Wednesday it will cut
off financial support to the country's boxing governing body unless its chief,
who has been at odds with an international boxing organization, resigns.
Yoo Jae-joon, chairman of the Korean Amateur Boxing Federation (KABF), is accused
of having tarnished the reputation of South Korean boxing. The International
Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) banned South Korean boxers in May from
participating in all AIBA-sanctioned events, though the ban was lifted in
mid-August, just two weeks before the opening of the world championship
competition that started in Italy on Tuesday.
The decision came after Yoo accepted an 18-month suspension imposed by AIBA for
sending an unauthorized doctor to an international competition earlier this year.
Kim Dae-ki, second vice minister with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and
Tourism, called a news conference in Seoul Wednesday to voice the government's
determination to force Yoo to leave the KABF.
"Korean boxers were finally allowed to compete in the world championship
tournament (in Italy), but it's just a stopgap measure," Kim said. "The
government will suspend subsidies to the KABF until it normalizes its
organization," he said, suggesting that Yoo's retirement should be part of such
steps.
Meanwhile, Kim said his ministry had conducted an extensive inspection of the
Korea Olympic Council (KOC) and 55 KOC-affiliated sports governing bodies between
June and July and detected numerous cases of accounting fraud and other
irregularities.
The KOC was accused of squandering its budget for building two more national
sports centers without a detailed master plan and diverting part of allowances
given for the Beijing Olympics to officials without the ministry's approval,
according to ministry officials.
Likewise, a number of KOC-affiliated sports federations, whose names have been
withheld by the ministry, have allegedly diverted government-administered funds
to other purposes and have overspent their annual budgets.
"State subsidies given to local sports organizations come from taxpayers' money
but many of them have been misused. The government will establish new accounting
rules for the sports organizations by the end of this month," said the vice
minister.
brk@yna.co.kr
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