It's not a sudden violation of the Korean Air's illegal uniform wave regulations, but sanctions are imposed, what the hell is going on?

Oct 29, 2025

It's not a sudden violation of the Korean Air's illegal uniform wave regulations, but sanctions are imposed, what the hell is going on?
Photo courtesy=KOVO



You didn't do anything wrong, but you're imposing a fine?

There was a scuffle between Korean Air and KEPCO over uniforms. In the process, KOVO also imposed sanctions on Korean Air. What the hell happened.

Korean Air and KEPCO faced off in the first round of the 2025-2026 Jin Air V League at Gyeyang Gymnasium in Incheon on the 23rd. Korean Air's opening game.




At that time, Korean Air won the game 3-1 with the performance of new captain Jung Ji-seok. However, KOVO announced on the 29th that it has decided to impose sanctions on Korean Air regarding the game.

I thought it was happening. However, KEPCO insists that it violates the rules on players' participation.

The situation was like this. Korean Air's foreign player Russell was wearing a uniform with the number 51 on the day. When he came as a substitute last season, he played 51 times.




The problem was that Kim Kwan-woo's English name was engraved on top of 51. There was confusion in the preparation of the uniform. Russell's name was embedded on the No. 15 uniform worn by Kim Kwan-woo.

Russell was No. 51 and Kim Kwan-woo was No. 15, so the registered player's name and uniform number had to be matched. Or you could have been a bad player.

Korean Air recognized the issue before the game and reported it to the match supervisor. The game supervisor judged that if the name was modified by attaching tape, etc., the uniform design was the same, so there was no problem in playing the game. After removing only the names of Russell and Kim Kwan-woo engraved on other uniforms, Korean Air rushed to put them on the uniforms to play in.




It's not a sudden violation of the Korean Air's illegal uniform wave regulations, but sanctions are imposed, what the hell is going on?
photo source=capture the relay screen
The problem is that KEPCO found out about this and requested that the players be suspended from the field. However, the match supervisor said there were no violations of the rules. However, based on Article 21 of KOVO's operating guidelines on the 29th, the FIVB regulations also apply to V-League games, so Russell and Kim Kwan-woo's uniforms should have player names printed on the uniform' claimed to be in violation of FIVB regulations. He added that the FIVB regulations do not allow taping and attaching stickers in shoe-related regulations, so they should be applied equally to uniforms.

If you think it's over if you let an illegal player play and impose sanctions, it's something that KEPCO can feel unfair about.

What is KOVO's position on this. A KOVO official said "Before the game, I recognized that there was a problem with the uniform. If you change your name to normal, I let you know that there's no problem with the game" he said. Although there are some differences, it is not a matter that causes inconvenience in the progress of the game or affects performance.

Then, why did the sanctions be imposed. First of all, the fine is 100,000 won. A KOVO official explained that "a sanction imposed because there was a possibility of interfering with the progress of the game due to not preparing the proper uniforms." According to the regulations, it is stipulated that the player will be fined 100,000 won for violating the uniform. Therefore, Russell and Kim Kwan-woo have to pay 100,000 won each. He stressed that it is never an unjustified situation that allows an illegal player to play and pay a sanction late. To put it simply, 100,000 won in sanctions will be imposed unconditionally for wearing the wrong uniform, and if this is a realistic correction, the player can play in the game, and if the uniform is ridiculous to anyone, the player is not allowed to play.

It's not a sudden violation of the Korean Air's illegal uniform wave regulations, but sanctions are imposed, what the hell is going on?
photo source=capture the relay screen
Regarding KEPCO's claim, the official said, `There is no stipulation that the name of the player should be printed in the same way. In the case of shoes, stickers are not allowed to be attached when covering trademarks, but that is limited to shoes, and there are no special regulations on taping on uniforms. In this case, we leave it to the judgment of the field. However, regarding this controversy "We will prepare to supplement the regulations to prevent such misunderstandings from occurring in the future."," he added.

Korea Electric Power Corp. is more unfair because KEPCO Kang Min-woong suffered from the controversy over illegal uniforms when the two teams faced off in 2017. At that time, Kang Min-woong also wore the wrong uniform and played in the previous year's uniform with almost the same design in a hurry, but he was treated as an irregular player at the time. A KOVO official responded "At that time, the rules were misapplied by field officials such as match supervisors." So, all officials at the time were severely punished. For this reason, KEPCO may be unfair in this case, but the field tried to proceed as set.'





This article was translated by Naver AI translator.