With the deadline for the establishment of a new public sports federation promoting lifestyle and everyday sports fast approaching, the government and the Korean Olympic Committee remain far apart over the issue of the merger of the KOC and the Korea Council of Sport for All.

The new sports entity to be created through this merger, tentatively named the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee, or KSOC, needs to be launched on March 27 under a revised law.

The parties involved in this merger process are in full agreement as to why the KOC and KOCOSA should tie the knot and become one entity -- to encourage all Koreans, not only the professional athletes, to engage in sports for a better and healthy lifestyle. 

Ahn Yang-ok, who heads a preparation committee for the upcoming merger, recently told reporters that Korea is “belatedly” carrying out this task of “sports for everyone,” noting that the U.S., Japan and other advanced economies have been promoting everyday sports since the 1980s.

On the other hand, Korea tends to actively encourage sports mainly in those who show talent from an early age. It does not actively promote sports to the rest of the population. This practice is not on par with Korea’s present economic and social standards.

“The purpose of this merger is to tear down the wall between elite and everyday sports, not only for the advancement of sports but also for our economy and society,” Ahn said.

The KOC, the key coordinator of Olympic events and Olympics diplomacy, said that it supports promoting sports to everyone via a merged federation. Its disagreement with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is over who has control of the KSOC.

“We are behind this vision and philosophy of increasing the general public and students’ participation in everyday sports because we too strongly believe that as more people exercise and practice sports, this will advance elite sports, thus creating a virtuous cycle,” said a KOC official.

“However, the conflict is that the ministry is interfering too much over this merger process, which should really be led by the two agencies that are going through this merger.”

The key disputes include incorporating legal articles that allow the ministry to have the final say over the appointment of KSOC’s executive positions. The Sports Ministry claimed that this was to ensure “a balanced and fair management system.” The KOC argues that this would “undermine the merged entity’s autonomy.” The KOCOSA, which has maintained silence on the issue, has been all for the merger from the beginning.

The preparation committee headed by Ahn had to suspend its meeting last Monday as more than half of its 11 members boycotted the ministry’s stance, leading the KOC union members to demand that Ahn step down. Ahn is also the president of the Korean Federation of Teachers’ Associations.

Following the suspension of the meeting, the Sports Ministry agreed with the KOC to ask the Switzerland-based International Olympic Committee to review the proposed articles of incorporation for the KSOC to see whether they are in accordance with international sports standards.

The ministry and KOC officials said that the KOSC articles of incorporation are being translated into English for the IOC review.

“We are currently translating the proposed articles, and will send the translated version to the IOC,” said a KOC spokesperson, without giving a specific timeline.

The government first proposed the merger in the early 2000s, but discussions did not really take off until the revision of the country’s sports promotion law in February last year.

Under the vision set through the law revision, Korea seeks to increase the general public and students’ rate of participation in sports from 43 percent in 2013 to over 60 percent in 2017, and create 270,000 sports-related jobs by 2017 from 230,000, according to the ministry.

However, the merger has often been described as “trying to mix water with oil” given the widening gap between sports for professionals and the general public with the KOC becoming bigger and more influential in the world of Korean professional sports, compared to the KOCOSA.

By Park Hyong-ki (hkp@heraldcorp.com)