The twins Lee Dayoung and Lee Jaeyoung, 25, were key players of South Korea's women's volleyball team and Heungkuk Life Pink Spiders club. Back in February, they became a talk of town as they were found guilty to the accusation that they bullied junior players when they were senior players of their middle school. The accusation was extreme and included actions like threatened disobedient juniors with knife or hit them with cloth hanger. Victims said the coach knew everything but turned blind eyes as the twins were keys to the victory of the team. After becoming ultimate villains and being suspended indefinitely from both Pink Spiders and national roster, the twins expressed that the accusation was exaggerating and they had reported the accuser of slandering to make their cases clear yet, nothing had been cleared since.
The absence of the twins was imminent to both Pink Spiders and the national teams. Both teams performed much poorer since. Thus, the attempt to bring them back was not surprising.
On June 11, CAAN, an athlete agency based in Turkey reported via its website that Lee Dayoung had signed with PAOK Thessaloniki, a top team of Greek league.
KOVO, Korean Volleyball Federation, responded that the transfer of any Korean player must be granted by it and it could not do so as Lee Dayoung had caused a big social issue which had not been sorted out. According to the rule of FIVB, Federation Internationale de Volleyball, ITC, international transfer certificate, from the domestic authority is required for a professional athlete to play for a foreign club.
Still, the transfer of Lee Dayoung to Greece has not been shut down completely. There is a plan B, which is to request the ITC directly from FIVB. This is the intervention to protect the athlete from domestic abuse. As KOVO has a reasonable ground to suspend Lee Dayoung, the action may not be deemed as an abuse of power, deserving an intervention of FIVB.
Yet, on June 20, a Greek outlet reported that Lee Dayoung had been confirmed moving to PAOK. A manager of CAAN tole the journalist that he had acknowledged the stance of KOVO regarding Lee Dayoung yet, the athlete would be transferred accordingly to the rule of FIVB. This suggested Lee Dayoung would get ITC from FIVB.
On June 23, Pink Spiders had a meeting with KOVO and revealed its plan to register Lee Dayoung and Lee Jaeyoung as members of the club for the next season and to lend Lee Dayoung to the Greek club.
Kim Yeo Il, the manager of Pink Spiders, excused that the registration was required or both players would become free agents. Lee twins signed 3 season contracts with the club and it had been only 1 season since.
The attempt to bring the twins back enraged K-netz. Korean sport journalists too expressed that the comeback of the twins was expected yet, now was too early. The twins had not officially apologised to all victims and to go working oversea looked remorseless for Lee Dayoung. Also, the action of Pink Spiders played down the pain of bullying. While Pink Spiders' staff kept replying to the journalist that the club had had no plan for the twins, it had been pushing to send Lee Dayoung oversea and had decided to bring Lee Jaeyoung back in the next season all along. Pink Spiders had lied to the press.
Even if they could come back this early, things will not go smooth for both twins. The Spanish Maya, who fought with Lee Dayoung when they were teammates in Suwon Hyundai Hillstate for 2018-2019 season, reportedly has signed with PAOK. And, just before the bullying accusation, both Lee Dayoung and Lee Jaeyoung had to skip a match as they had a fight with the Kim Yeon Koung, the captain of Pink Spiders and a national superstar. Kim told the press that it was mere a usual conflicting opinions between teammates but, it was rumored that Lee Dayoung cheating on Kim Yeon Koung with a male model. Lee Jaeyoung is not a main character in the personal conflict yet, it must be a tension working with her sister's ex.
