It has been confirmed that the Korea Equestrian Association has recently requested the national athletes of the Asian Games in Hangzhou in September to decide whether to participate on the premise that they will bear 100 million won per person for horse transportation costs.
A national equestrian team spoke with a reporter on the 17th and said, “The association recently asked the national team members to decide whether or not to participate in the Asian Games only if they pay about 100 million won for horse transportation.” The national team consists of 9 players. Eight horses departing from Korea and one horse staying overseas must go to Hangzhou, and the total transportation cost is expected to be around 1 billion won. The association replied, “No one can answer because the person in charge is on a day off,” and “No one knows about this task except the person in charge.”
In the past, during the Olympics and Asian Games, the association paid for horse transport costs and stable operating costs with its own budget. Then, due to a lack of budget for the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta Palembang, they received approval from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and spent about 500 million won from the association’s reserve funds for the cost of dispatching the national team. The association received approval from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism again in 2020, took out a loan of 200 million won with the remaining reserves as collateral, and used it for expenses related to the association’s lawsuit. The Korea Sports Association said, “As far as we know, we have not been able to repay the principal for a total of 700 million won, including 500 million won in reserves and 200 million won in loans.”
The reserve fund is the remaining money collected by the sports organization after receiving the national treasury and funds to operate the organization. In fact, since it is a public fund, it is not touched at all, and in unavoidable cases, it can be used partially with the approval of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. It is not easy for the association to obtain approval from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism again as it has not been able to repay the principal of the reserve funds it spent in 2018. It is expected that very few players will go to the Asian Games by paying 100 million won per person. However, it is realistically difficult to use the remaining 1.8 billion won for the national team dispatch expenses. Reserves are money collected with the intention of using the money generated from business as seed money for group operating expenses.
The association announced in April that transportation costs have increased significantly due to the Asian Games Organizing Committee’s monopoly on airline agencies. The association said, “The Organizing Committee entrusted the horse air transportation to a German agency that had an exclusive contract with it. The association explained, “Common sense does not make sense to move horses to Europe and then bring them back to Hangzhou. The association added, “If the organizing committee does not come up with a solution, the association should drastically reduce the number of players or even consider not participating.” It is true that the cost has risen, but it is difficult to avoid criticism for not preparing financially for the association.토토사이트
The leadership of the equestrian association has weakened due to the Jeong Yu-ra incident, and it has become difficult to receive corporate sponsorship. The financial leeway enjoyed by Hanwha and Samsung in the past as chairman has also disappeared.