Paichai alumni association calls emergency press conference over 6-month ban on school's baseball team

The Korea Baseball Softball Association has handed Paichai High School's baseball team a six-month ban from national competitions over regional-slur chants, and the Paichai Hakdang Alumni Association said Friday it would speak out to protect the student athletes.

The alumni association said it would hold a press conference at 11 a.m. Friday outside the Korea Baseball Softball Association building in Songpa-gu, Seoul, with graduates, parents of current students and alumni who played on the baseball team in attendance.

Kim Dong-yeon, president of the 39th board of the Paichai Hakdang Alumni Association, and some 80,000 alumni said the student athletes were "facing a severe disciplinary crisis that is difficult for them to bear." They added that while the wrongdoing must certainly be reflected upon and responsibility taken, shifting all the blame onto student athletes who are preparing for their futures cannot be an educational solution.

During the 81st Cheongrong Flag National High School Baseball Championship and Weekend League Finals between Paichai High School and Gwangju Jeil High School at Mokdong Baseball Stadium on Sunday, some Paichai players chanted "Let's go, let's go, let's go to Starbucks" toward the opposing dugout, while one player shouted "Tank Day." The chants drew widespread criticism for evoking Starbucks Korea's "5·18 Tank Day" promotional event, which had itself sparked major public controversy, with many condemning the chants as mocking the Gwangju region and ridiculing the pro-democracy movement.

The Korea Baseball Softball Association convened its Sports Fairness Committee on Tuesday and ruled to ban the Paichai High School baseball team from national competitions for six months over the inappropriate chants. The association also said it would conduct a thorough investigation during the suspension period to identify specific individuals involved and reconvene the Sports Fairness Committee within that time.

To eradicate inappropriate chanting at games and prevent a recurrence, the association said it would revise its regulations — including making it mandatory for managers to receive a pre-game briefing at home plate on the prohibition of inappropriate chanting at all future competitions.

On the same day the ban was announced, the Paichai Hakdang Alumni Association issued a statement saying that while there are clearly aspects of this matter that Paichai must humbly reflect on and take responsibility for, placing all the blame on student athletes who are still growing and on coaches could amount to turning away from the essence of the problem. The statement added that what is needed now is not the shifting of responsibility, but the spirit of those who caused the problem stepping up to resolve it.

The association also said it had learned that some parents were visiting the school to raise concerns related to students withdrawing from competition. It warned that if the issue continues to escalate and students and coaches are left to bear criticism alone, the wounds will remain for a long time and could cause greater conflict and division across the entire school community.

The association then urged the chairman of the Paichai Hakdang board and the school principal to come forward and address the situation, saying that if the root cause also lies in the school's management and administrative systems, a leader in a position of responsibility must step up to resolve the situation and propose a way forward.

Meanwhile, conservative civic groups, arguing the ban was excessive, moved to file criminal complaints against the Korea Baseball Softball Association.

The People's Livelihood Committee filed a complaint Friday morning with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency seeking punishment of the association's president, vice president and Sports Fairness Committee members on charges including coercion and obstruction of business.

In the complaint, the group said the players are minors and it is a stretch to view the chants as malicious, calling the ban one-sided, unfair and unreasonable for applying the punishment to starting players in their third year of high school and disrupting their future athletic careers.

The Jayu Daehan Hogukdan and former Seoul city lawmaker Kim Hye-ji also announced plans to file their own complaints against the association's leadership on Friday.

In front of Paichai High School, critical wreaths bearing messages such as "Democracy is dead" and supportive ones from hardline conservative groups reading "Our proud sons, do not be discouraged" have appeared side by side, reflecting how the controversy has taken on the character of an ideological standoff.