Everything About The S’pore Taekwondo Federation Suspension in 60 Sec

I‘ve always wanted to get into taekwondo or another martial art.

The power forces of inertia, laziness and the unwillingness to search for good classes and pay for them ensured that I didn’t.

Maybe it’s just as well; things are rocky for the Taekwondo athletes competing in the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games end of this year because on Wednesday (8 March 2019), the Singapore Taekwondo Federation (STF) was suspended by the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) and World Taekwondo (WT).

Why?

The simple summary:

There was a mass resignation from the Singapore Taekwondo Federation (STF), which prompted World Taekwondo (WT) to poke around and conclude that things aren’t up to standard.

Seven management committee members, including Milan Kwee who has been president of STF for 14 years, resigned.

World Taekwondo got SNOC’s help to review the situation, and based on their findings, SNOC expressed “grave concerns over the STF’s governance and high performance management.”

SNOC said, “It is regretful that the state of affairs at the STF has languished to its current situation.The foremost priority is to restore proper, fair and transparent systems in the governance and high performance management of Singapore taekwondo.”

The resignations triggered the suspension, but for a while now it seems like people have been exposing STF’s inadequacies.

Five Ways to get Suspended

According to The Straits Times, a national association’s membership with the world body can be suspended for the following five reasons:

• if its related National Olympic Committee is suspended by the International Olympic Committee
• failure to fulfil its financial or other outstanding obligations to the WT
• acting in gross violation or repeated violations of the WT statutes, the competition rules, or other WT rules or regulations
• pursuant to a recommendation of the juridical committee for poor governance, a failure of governance or a clear and unjustifiable lack of representation
• failure to communicate with the WT and to participate in WT activities and events (inactivity) for a period of one year or more.

This case seems to align with the 4th point.

Though, of course, we won’t know what really happened, except it’s no goody management.

Other Controversies

Earlier, Mothership had reported that current and former national taekwondo athletes were unsatisfied with the lack of proper national squad training even approaching major competitions.

A national athlete, Ng Ming Wei also spoke out about the struggles he goes through with regards to training and funding, in his quest to compete in the Olympic Games.

When he shared his loss in status as a carded athlete on Facebook, he brought STF’s lawyers on him for making “false allegations” and providing “misleading information about STF to local media”.

Consequences of the Suspension

According to The Straits Times: “Suspended members will no longer be able to attend official meetings or participate in all WT official events. They will also not be eligible to receive funds from WT.”

What about the athletes competing in SEA Games this year?

SNOC and Sport Singapore (SportSG) will set up a major games preparation committee to manage the selection and training, taking charge of the their preparations for the Games, held from 30 November to 11 December in the Philippines.

Well, it seems like even if you’re talented, it’s tough being a sportsperson in Singapore #justsaying