IFMA-led boycott of Kun Khmer competition In July 2022, the Cambodian SEA Games Organizing Committee decided to link
Muay Thai to
Kun Khmer and used the name "Kun Khmer (Muay)" as the official name for the competition. This action resulted from the displeasure of the Cambodian public, who criticized the organizing committee for not displaying sufficient patriotism in its promotion of Cambodia's traditional martial arts. Afterwards,
International Federation of Muaythai Associations (IFMA), the international federation of Muay Thai, has claimed that the organizing committee was seeking to work with an organization that is not recognized by the
International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the
Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) as the sanctioning body for the competition. The IFMA was planning to bring this matter to the attention of the IOC, the IOC Ethics Commission, the OCA, and the
World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). In January 2023, the IFMA sent warnings to each national federation to stop sending their teams to compete in the Kun Khmer competition, otherwise the violating national federations will be banned from upcoming
World Games,
Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games,
IFMA World Muaythai Championships, and other IFMA-sanctioned events.
Participation and medal cap Participating nations are limited in the number of athletes they can enter in certain sports – for example martial arts, dragon boat, and esports, while such restriction is not applied to the host country. The Philippines, which claims to be backed by other participating nations aside from the host, has protested such regulation alleging it to be a strategy for Cambodia to finish at least fourth in the medal tally. The Philippines protested Cambodia's plan to only allow a maximum of two gold medals to be awarded to a competitor in the gymnastics events. This was later revised to three following a complaint from the
Gymnastics Association of the Philippines. In the
men's cross country mountain biking cycling event, originally Indonesia made a
podium sweep. However, according to the rules of the SEA Games Federation (SEAGF) article 37 paragraph C which prohibits the same country from sweeping the medals in one event. This regulation has been in force since 30 May 2010. Thus third place finisher Ihza Muhammad was not awarded the bronze medal, which went to the fourth place rider Khim Menglong of Cambodia. Bambang Roedyanto, a technical official for the games, claimed that "Cambodia [wanted] the opportunity to win medals from [badminton], so [the mixed team event] was held with countries [with developing badminton teams]".
Upside down flag incident At the opening ceremony of the 2023 Southeast Asian Games which was held at the
Morodok Techo National Stadium on Friday, 5 May 2023, multiple
Burmese,
Indonesian, and
Vietnamese flag carried by several back-up dancers appeared to be upside-down in a performance by a local artist during the pre-show of the opening ceremony. Responding to this incident, the
Indonesian Olympic Committee sent out an official letter of objection to the Cambodian 2023 Southeast Games Organizing Committee. Indonesian Olympic Committee Secretary General Harry Warganegara confirmed that Cambodia had submitted an apology to Indonesia, promising and ensuring that this incident would not be repeated in the duration of the games. Indonesian sports minister
Dito Ariotedjo received an apology from his Cambodian counterpart
Hangchuon Naron on the following day. Aside from the apology from the Cambodian 2023 Southeast Games Organizing Committee, Town Production, a Cambodian broadcasting and media production company involved at the ceremony, also issued a statement of apology, describing the blunder as a "disrespectful mistake" and an "oversight". The production company also said that it will send letters of apology to the embassies of the three countries involved.
Organization The condition of the facility for the
5-on-5 basketball tournament was highly criticized. As the event was held at a multi-purpose hall, the flooring used at the court was found to be made out of
linoleum instead of wood. According to the Philippine team, the air-conditioning was also insufficient. Filipino athlete
Calvin Oftana sustained a calf injury after slipping on the floor, thus ruling him out from the tournament before it even began. Because of this, head coach
Chot Reyes criticized the quality of the flooring. The Singaporean assistant coach also criticized the facility, stating that their athletes were also injured due to the flooring. In the athlete's village, the Indonesian badminton women's team room had a problem with a leaky room after heavy rain, just before competing. This was also experienced by several Indonesian athletes' rooms in the athletes' village. The leaked room was immediately coordinated with by the committee and have received repairs.
Judging and match issues Filipina
karateka Junna Tsukii protested the judges' decision to award her a silver medal in the women's −50 kg kumite event. After her bout against Malaysia karateka Shahmalarani Chandran ended in a tie, the judges remained split in voting the winner before the referee awarded the win to Shahmalarani. Tsukii refused to bow to her opponent and said in a post-match interview, "I was more active than her, but they chose her. I don't know what happened with this judge [
sic]. I'm not happy with my medal". During the victory ceremony, she also refused to stand on the podium. Malaysia
hammer throw athlete Jackie Wong managed to make his final throw of 64.64m, which would've awarded him the gold medal, before his result was disallowed following a technical error by the judges, losing out to Thailand's Kittipong Boonmawan. Jackie and his team manager, Datuk R. Annamalai had both launched written protests, but both appeals were rejected by the organisers. Indonesian
pencak silat athlete Safira Dwi Meilani competed against Vietnamese athlete, Nguyễn Hoàng Hồng Ân in the women's class B (50–55 kg) final. When the match was less than 18 seconds left, Safira, who was ahead with a score of 61–43, received a controversial action from the referee. She was deemed injured and was disqualified by the referee. As a result, Hồng Ân was initially declared as the winner and the Indonesian team then appealed the controversial referee's decision. The appeal was granted; thus, Safira was also awarded the gold medal. Vietnamese team officials also protested to the organizers after they learned about the decision, requesting to start the match again or restarting from the remaining 18 seconds of the last round, leading to a scuffle between the officials of two countries. Hồng Ân still retain the gold medal as well, thus both athletes shared the gold medal and no silver medal was awarded. In the
Valorant mixed team event final match of the esports competition between Singapore and Indonesia, Indonesia was down 4–10 when the game took a technical pause that lasted for at least two hours, before the stream ended without a conclusion. The Indonesian squad claimed that the Singaporean team took advantage of an
exploit, which would have given Singapore an unfair advantage over Indonesia. The game was not resumed, and players were told to return in the morning to complete the games. Indonesia later decided to forfeit, giving Singapore the gold. Juanita Tanjung, the brand ambassador for Indonesia in the SEA Games, stated that the team's decision to forfeit was done for "upholding the nation's dignity and considering the unfavorable conditions of the situation." The SEA Games Federation officials later decided to also award the gold medal to Indonesia, sharing it with Singapore. In
Pencak silat, Cambodian athlete Non Sromoachkroham won the gold medal in the Men's class U45 (–45 kg) category. However, Non did not participate in any matches from the start. With his opponents in the semi-final, Malaysia's Muhammad Khairul Shaddad Ardi, and the final, Indonesia's Bayu Lesmana, both walked out without any specific reasons. Lesmana's teammate later alleged that Cambodia forced their opponents to walkout from the match, in an attempt for the host Cambodia to win gold in every sports. A few days later, Indonesian silat head coach Indro Catur Haryono clarified that the withdrawal was agreed beforehand with the other nations to award a gold medal for Cambodia as a token of appreciation for including pencak silat in the Games. In the
men's football, chaos occurred in the match between the
Indonesia and
Thailand in the final match. Indonesian team players and officials had to be cleared from the pitch after they mistook the whistle blow signalling foul for full time whistle, thinking that Indonesia has won the match 2–1. The resulting free kick equalized the score and the first brawl started after Indonesian player Titan Agung pushed one of the Thai coaches who celebrated by running towards the Indonesian bench. After the extra time started, Indonesia player
Irfan Jauhari immediately scored a goal which made the score change to 3–2 in favor of Indonesia. Another chaos ensued on the bench of the two teams as some Indonesian players and officials ran towards the Thai bench to celebrate the goal. As a result of the incidents, the referee issued several red cards to the players and coaching staffs of both teams. The
basketball tournaments do not follow
FIBA eligibility rules; players only had to have citizenship of the country they seek to represent their national team in the games. This meant that every national team could field as much
naturalized players or dual citizens regardless of whether they acquired their passport by the age of 16 or not as per FIBA rules as they can. Hosts Cambodia decided to field a roster full of naturalized players for their men's and women's 3x3 teams, the former which had one local player. The men's regular basketball team will have an additional 3 naturalized athletes, making the 5x5 Cambodia basketball team fielded a total of 6 naturalized players, all but one who has no Cambodian heritage. Cambodian basketball player Joshua Bo Noung lamented the decision of his country to field teams mostly of players with no Cambodian heritage. Indonesian sports minister
Dito Ariotedjo expressed shock and confusion regarding the fielding of the players. In
cricket, Malaysia has questioned the eligibility of Cambodia's thirteen players who are naturalized. While only using just some of these players' passports as reference, the Malaysian Cricket Association has noted that these passports were only issued on April 23 or six days prior to the first match and has past the March 3 player shortlist deadline. In badminton, Cambodia badminton player Chourng Meng was revealed to be Chinese badminton player Zhou Meng, who was the runner-up of
2019 BWF World Junior Championships. In a video that has gone viral, Chourng was suddenly pulled off the field by a man presumed to be Cambodian officials, while celebrating her victory in the final. Apart from leaving the field early, Chourng was also absent from the mixed team medal ceremony. == Broadcasting ==