In the professional volleyball all-star fan vote, fans thoroughly ignored players who had controversial issues such as school violence, dating violence, and sexual harassment.
The 2022-2023 season V-League All-Star fan voting started on the 12th and ended at midnight on the 18th. This season’s All-Star fan voting period was only 7 days, the shortest period in the All-Star Game history.
According to the results of the All-Star fan voting for the 2022-2023 season released by the Korea Volleyball Federation (KOVO) on its website on the 19th, Heungkuk Life Insurance Kim Yeon-kyung (34) won 82,297 votes, recording the most votes in male and female volleyball. In the men’s division, KEPCO Shin Young-seok (36) received the most votes with 69,006 votes.
With this, Kim Yeon-kyung set the record for the most votes for her second V-League All-Star. Two years ago, in the 2020-2021 season V-League All-Star voting, Kim Yeon-kyung also received the most votes among men and women with 82,115 votes. At that time, the voting period was 11 days. This time, the voting period was significantly shorter, but rather more votes were obtained.
‘Best box office maker’ Kim Yeon-kyung.. 2nd most votes
A total of 28 players, male and female, were confirmed to participate in the All-Star Game through this fan vote. In the case of male M-stars, Na Gyeong-bok (Woori Card), Moon Seong-min (Hyundai Capital), Jeon Kwang-in (Hyundai Capital) in the offensive player (outside heater/apposite) category, Shin Young-seok (KEPCO) and Choi Min-ho (Hyundai Capital) in the middle blocker category. Capital), Han Seon-sun (Korean Air) for the setter division, and Lee Sang-wook (Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance) for the libero division.
In Z-Star, strikers Lim Dong-hyuk (Korean Air), Heo Soo-bong (Hyundai Capital), Kim Ji-han (Woori Card), middle blocker Kim Min-jae (Korean Air), Lee Sang-hyun (Woori Card), setter Kim Myeong-kwan (Hyundai Capital), Park Kyung-min (Hyundai Capital), libero It was chosen by the fans.
The female M-stars are striker Kim Yeon-kyung (Heungkuk Life Insurance), Kim Hee-jin (IBK Industrial Bank of Korea), Park Jung-ah (Korea Expressway Corporation), middle blocker Yang Hyo-jin (Hyundai E&C), Kim Su-ji (IBK Industrial Bank of Korea), setter Lee Go-eun (Pepper Savings Bank), libero Kim Hae-ran (Heungkuk Life Insurance) was selected. ‘Social controversy’ players… Fans thoroughly ‘punishment vote’
The Z-stars are striker Kang So-hui (GS Caltex), Park Eun-seo (Pepper Savings Bank), Kim Se-in (Korea Expressway Corporation), middle blocker Lee Da-hyeon (Hyundai E&C), Joo-ah Lee (Hungkuk Life Insurance), setter Kim Da-in (Hyundai E&C), libero Choi Hyo Seo (KGC Ginseng Corporation) was confirmed.
Meanwhile, the composition of this All-Star team was divided into M-Star Team (Millennial Generation M) and Z-Star Team (Smart Generation Z) for both men and women based on the age of both domestic and foreign players.
In addition, a total of 40 star players, including 28 players selected by fan voting and 12 players recommended by KOVO experts, will participate in the final round of the All-Star Game. As for the players recommended by the expert committee, three additional players are selected for each M-Star and Z-Star for both men and women.
The fact that the composition of the all-star team is divided based on the age of the players and the fact that there are many players recommended by the expert committee can distort the fan spirit, etc. are controversial among fans.
Also, there was one feature that stood out very much in this All-Star fan vote. The point is that players who had past controversies of school violence, dating violence, and sexual harassment were thoroughly ignored by fans.
Fans gathered public opinion to exclude such players from the voting target, and actively developed a failure campaign by giving votes to competing players. In particular, due to the trauma of the twin sister Lee Jae-young and Lee Da-young, they talked about women’s volleyball fans who have an extreme reluctance to the issue of school violence and violence as a ‘voting exclusion list’.
The player who became the focus of fans was Jeong Ji-seok (Korean Air), who was controversial on charges of dating violence against his girlfriend in September 2021 and damage to property. Jung Ji-seok is also active as the main striker for Korean Air this season, leading the league. If it is the same as before, he is a performance that is more than enough to be selected as the number one striker in the All-Star voting. In fact, in the 2020-2021 season all-star fan vote, which was conducted before the dating violence controversy, Jung Ji-seok took first place with the most votes in the V-Star striker category.
KOVO held a reward and punishment committee in November of last year and imposed a penalty of 5 million won on Jeong Ji-seok for related issues, and the Korean Air club, which belongs to the team, also punished itself by suspending participation until the 1st and 2nd rounds of the V-League in the 2021-2022 season. And he returned to the V-League from the first match of the 3rd round. The main reason for his return was that Jung Ji-seok made an agreement with the victim.
However, volleyball fans expressed strong resistance to such measures. In this all-star vote, not only Jung Ji-seok, but also players who showed off their friendship with Jung Ji-seok were thoroughly excluded.
However, in this All-Star vote, he ranked 13th out of 16 candidates in the men’s M-star striker category. The number of votes was virtually the same as the lowest.
Controversy over ‘academic violence’ Park Sang-ha…
There is another issue of ‘shame’, the lowest vote for two years in a row. Even players who are known to have a close relationship with Jung Ji-seok were hit hard. In the Z-Star striker category, Lim Seong-jin (KEPCO) is one of the three next-generation stars in the men’s volleyball world, along with Lim Dong-hyuk (Korean Air) and Heo Soo-bong (Hyundai Capital).
In fact, at the beginning of this All-Star voting, he was ranked third, and was expected to be selected without difficulty. However, the flow changed rapidly as fans talked about that he posted a phrase expressing ‘God Ji-seok’ towards Jeong Ji-seok on his SNS in the past. Fans excluded Seongjin Lim from the vote for 3rd place and began to vote for Jihan Kim (Woori Card), who was chasing 4th place. In the end, Lim Seong-jin fell behind Kim Ji-han by a huge gap of 12,000 votes and was eliminated.
In fact, Im Seong-jin is not without an unfair side. It’s not because he praised Jung Ji-seok’s wrongdoing. This shows that the public opinion of fans toward Jeong Ji-seok is very negative.
Park Sang-ha (Hyundai Capital), who was caught up in the ‘academic violence controversy’ in 2021, was humiliated by receiving the lowest vote in the middle blocker category for two consecutive years following last season. Park Sang-ha finished last season out of seven candidates in the V-Star Middle Blocker category in the All-Star Vote. In this All-Star voting as well, she placed last among the nine candidates in the M-Star Middle Blocker category.
Park Sang-ha, who confessed to the violence and declared retirement as a player when the controversy arose, was acquitted of some charges, such as group assault, and the police overturned his retirement based on this and returned to the V-League. However, the fans’ reaction is still cold, which is confirmed twice. Park Sang-ha was a popular star enough to rank second in the middle blocker category in the 2020-2021 All-Star fan vote just two years ago.
In addition, the player who started first in the men’s volleyball setter division was pushed back to second place by a large gap as fans began talking about the sexual harassment controversy this year. 토토
The return of a player who has offended the fans.. Fans’ ‘thorough turn away’ alarm
The fans’ move like this is inevitably a considerable alarm for V-League players, professional clubs, and KOVO.
This is because the fans clearly voted for ‘punishment’ for the professional clubs’ behavior and KOVO’s action with a cotton bat. It is also a warning to players that they must make special efforts to maintain responsibility and morality as professional players.
A pro league that fans turn away from has no reason to exist, nor can it exist. In particular, it is not an exaggeration to say that the only reason for the existence of the domestic professional league, which is difficult to make a profit from the operation of a professional club, is the effect of publicity and advertising. The effect is created solely from the popularity of fans. Professional sports that cite fan spirit only when it is advantageous for their purpose and ridicule it as ‘misaligned fan spirit’ when it is unfavorable will inevitably fall.
If you don’t want to go back to the days when you lost fans and broadcasters didn’t even broadcast properly, you have to get rid of the chronic disease of lightly handling the social controversy that fans are reluctant to do. Such malady has been a major reason for the decline in popularity in other professional sports as well. Times have changed a lot. At least, the strong warning from the fans means that there is still hope.