Presidents of the nine clubs in South Korea's top baseball league failed Tuesday to narrow their differences on a lottery system for annual rookie drafts, putting off their discussion until a future meeting.

The club executives from the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) held their first board meeting this year, with the potential change to the draft setting as the key item on the agenda.

Last month, the KBO clubs' general managers proposed that the league draft should adopt a lottery system. In that scheme, non-playoff teams from the previous season would enter a lottery for the right to the first overall selection. The other four teams that advanced to the postseason would draft in the reverse order of their record.

Currently, the KBO uses a reverse-record order, in which the team with the worst record in the previous year automatically earns the first overall pick while the league champion picks last in the first round.

Eight teams currently compete in the KBO, with four teams playing in the postseason. A ninth club, NC Dinos, will join the KBO in 2013.
On Tuesday, some presidents were behind the lottery, but others called for the revival of the territorial draft, which had been used until 2008.

Under the territorial setting, teams could acquire high school or college players from their home city or satellite cities in the same province. The idea was to build strong local connections for teams and secure support of hometown fans.

The league abolished the territorial draft in 2008 to ensure more parity, since top prospects tended to come out of only certain regions in the country, benefiting only a select few clubs.

But without the territorial draft, professional clubs gradually cut down on their support for local school teams, which critics claimed halted development of youth baseball.

Against this backdrop, teams based in areas with a rich tradition in high school or college baseball were in support of the territorial draft on Tuesday.

In South Korea, the KBO is the only major sports league using the reverse order draft. The country's top basketball, football and volleyball leagues all have the lottery system in place.

Proponents of the lottery say it will help ensure clubs out of playoff contention don't lose games on purpose late in the season to earn themselves high draft positions.

In North America, the National Football League (NFL) teams draft in reverse order of their record. The National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Hockey League (NHL) use the lottery. (Yonhap)