Mayor Apologizes for Tennis Privileges

Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak apologized to his constituents yesterday for “not being thoughtful enough” regarding his involvement in the ongoing tennis scandal.

Mayor Lee said in a press conference, “I didn’t know that the Namsan Indoor Tennis Courts has been emptied for six to eight hours on weekends in order for me to play tennis. Whether I knew it or not, citizens became concerned and it is my fault as a public official that I didn’t take this matter seriously.”

But Lee also said, “I just played tennis while other tennis club members were playing. It was not that the court was emptied for a certain period of time for me. The nickname ‘Tennis Emperor’ doesn’t make sense.”

He explained that he used the tennis court after the head of the Seoul Tennis Association at the time said in 2003, “Because you like playing tennis and club members play tennis on weekends, you can come here and play tennis whenever you want to.”

Regarding the rental fee controversy in which 20 million won was paid by another person in addition to the six million won Lee paid just recently, he said “The mayor cannot pay for everything when other club members played as well. I understand that club members made the payment.”

Dong-Ki Sung esprit@donga.com