"Fear of Being Forgotten": Sports Organizations Become Refugees After Month-Long Handball Stadium Lockdown

"I couldn't even bring out a single pen, my wallet, or my business cards. Everything is inside the office."

Resignation permeated the voice of an official from the Korea Wushu Association.

The protest blocking the Handball Stadium at Olympic Park in Seoul, sparked by the ballot paper shortage during the June 3 local elections, has been ongoing for over a month.

Officials from nine sports organizations under the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee, which have their offices there, have been unable to return to their desks since that day.

According to reports gathered by Yonhap News today (July 8), these organizations are barely managing their operations with a single laptop in temporary offices provided by the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation and the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee within the velodrome.

The most urgent issue is the disruption of international competitions.

The Korea Fencing Federation is set to send 24 athletes, including Oh Sang-uk, to the World Championships opening in Hong Kong on the 22nd.

The federation has urgently imported training swords, but the supply is woefully insufficient.

"We usually provide five practice swords per athlete, but now we can only give two or three," an official from the federation said. "We are unable to provide metal jackets at all."

The official added that they "do not even have the luxury to think about" preparations for the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, which are approaching in September.

For the Korea Alpine Federation, all uniforms and equipment for national team members, youth athletes, and promising prospects are locked inside the office.

They are pleading with sponsors to produce new gear for international competitions scheduled between July and September, but it is not easy.

The federation estimates its damages to be over 700 million won, and the figure is expected to continue rising as the situation drags on.

The Korea Sepaktakraw Association, facing the Bangkok World Championships in August and the Asian Games in September, is also considering repurchasing new uniforms that are trapped in their office.

The Korea Underwater Association was fined 15 million won by the international federation due to administrative delays following the World Championships held in Incheon last month.

It is reported that some countries have given up on participating in this competition due to the unstable situation.

Another desperate issue is the non-payment of wages and allowances.

The Korea DanceSport Federation failed to pay prize money and allowances on time to the winners of the national team selection event, Breaking K, held in Busan on the 27th of last month.

Allowances for national team directors, coaches, and athletes remain unpaid, posing a direct threat to their livelihoods.

The reason for the inability to make payments is that the OTP devices, corporate seal certificates, and corporate stamps required for corporate account transfers are all locked inside the sealed office.


Even if they try to reissue an OTP at the bank, a corporate seal is required, but since that seal is inside the office, they are stuck in a loop.

Staff salaries for May were paid late, and June salaries have yet to be paid.

"We cannot sign sponsorship contracts, so sponsorship funds are not being deposited," an official from the Korea Billiards Federation lamented. "We are also missing out on a 200 million won bid because we couldn't sign the contract on time, leading directly to business losses."

Additionally, fees for issuing certifications and grade certificates are a key source of operating income for many associations.

The Korea Underwater Association has completely halted its scuba diving certification issuance work.

The Korea Wushu Association has already incurred 10 million won in costs to purchase new card-based grade certificate printers and supplies, along with 10 million won in lost revenue due to issuance delays.

These organizations are pleading for at least permission to retrieve their office PCs and documents, but there is no way to predict when the situation will be resolved.

The support funds provided by the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee to each organization are far from enough to cover the financial losses incurred so far, acting only as a temporary fix.

The cold gaze of the public makes things even harder for them.

Comments like "It must be nice not to have to go to work since the office is blocked anyway" cut deep.

Efficiency is already at rock bottom, as they have to borrow even basic items like calculators from neighboring offices to get work done.

Leaving work at 6 p.m. is out of the question, and as weekend work continues, staff members are increasingly complaining of fatigue.

"My biggest worry right now is that our young office staff might quit," one sports organization's secretary-general confessed, while another secretary-general had to be hospitalized after suffering from unexplained high fevers due to extreme stress.

The plea from the secretary-general of the Korea Billiards Federation represents the desperate hearts of those continuing this open-ended fight.

"We feel like we are becoming a nuisance. My biggest fear is that we will eventually be forgotten as time passes. In the end, we are the only ones left as victims."

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.