“Until 2018, players and clubs signed autonomous contracts”
“Write a unified contract that includes options from 2019”
Heo Koo-yeon
president of the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO), responded to allegations of
backroom deals for free agents (FAs) by saying, “There were no backroom deals.” He
added, “If you provide me with the relevant information, I will check it once again.”
He appeared as a witness at the National Audit Committee of the National Assembly’s
Committee on Culture, Sports, and Tourism on the 24th to explain the alleged
backroom deals in professional baseball FA contracts and the Automatic Ball-Strike
System (ABS) that the KBO League will introduce next year.
Yoo Jung-joo
a member of the Democratic Party of Korea who had held a press conference at the
National Assembly the day before to raise suspicions of money laundering in baseball
free agent contracts, told Heo that “the contents of the contracts submitted by the KBO
and those published in the KBO Baseball Yearbook are different.” “There is a difference
of 50 million won at the low end and 1.4 billion won at the high end,” he said.
In response, Heo said, “Because it is a professional sport, until 2018, players and clubs
autonomously signed contracts and submitted them to the KBO, which then published
them,” adding, “From 2019, we created a unified contract that also lists backside
contracts (including options).”
The KBO was not required to submit contracts with options until 2018, but starting in
2019, teams will be required to submit contracts with options to the KBO.
“I understood that there were no backroom deals,” Heo said, “but if the lawmaker can
provide me with relevant data, I will check again.”
When Yoo insisted again that a full investigation was needed, Heo said, “The KBO does
not have the authority to investigate, so I can’t give you an answer here. I will look into it.”
The National Assembly also discussed ABS, the so-called robotic umpire, which will be
introduced in the KBO next year.
“The main goal is to eliminate deviations (in the strike zone) and ensure that both
teams receive the same call,” Heo said, adding, “We will develop an ABS program and
try it next year. “I know the fans’ biggest complaint is the umpire’s strike zone. We’re
going to try to do that, even if it’s not perfect.” 스포츠토토맨
