Background
Within the Ministry of Interior, sports administration is linked to police personnel management, training, and institutional representation. The Ministry of Interior Sports Council is an internal governance body for managing National Police sports units and coordinating police athlete development with other Cambodian sports institutions.
The council’s mandate includes managing police sports units, setting long-term strategic objectives, reviewing athlete capacity and physical fitness, and coordinating with sports bodies across Cambodia’s ministries and institutions. Under the 2020 sub-decree cited by the ministry, the council may review athletes’ skills and fitness and propose recruitment into the National Police framework, subject to limits on replacing retired personnel.
Police sports programs connect competition management with administrative capacity building because officers, technical officials, coaches, and athletes can be assigned to events and training programs. Results reported by the council provide a record of how the ministry organizes sports participation, technical training, and athlete development within a public-sector institution.
Key Developments
For the first three months of 2026, the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Interior Sports Council reported that it sent delegations, deputy delegations, coaches, assistant coaches, and athletes to 28 domestic sports events. The ministry reported 208 medals from those domestic competitions, including 84 gold medals, 60 silver medals, and 64 bronze medals.
The council also reported participation in seven major overseas events involving Cambodian national team athletes and other athletes under its structure. Those overseas competitions produced six medals, including one gold medal, two silver medals, and three bronze medals, as well as six championship belts.
Institutional Role
The council’s first-quarter activities included training assignments intended to improve professional sports performance and technical capacity. It sent five National Police officials, including three women, two technical officials, four instructors, and four athletes to five training sessions.
The training activities listed by the ministry included national-level sepak takraw referee training, Level 1 cycling coach technical training, Level 1 national weightlifting referee training, Level 1 national sailing competition technical official training, and information technology training for strengthening sports data and statistics capacity.
Operational Implications
For the second quarter of 2026, the council identified four work priorities. These included preparing the Southeast Asia Police Badminton Championship 2025 for the second Samdech Abhisantibindit Sar Sokha Cup, organizing refresher training for specialized office officials, sending National Police technical officials and athletes to training and coaching programs inside and outside Cambodia, and preparing to implement leadership instructions.
Lieutenant General Yit Phearak, Secretary-General of the Ministry of Interior Sports Council, said the reported results and work direction reflected efforts by leaders, officials, coaches, and athletes to strengthen quality and efficiency across sports categories and levels.
