5th Women's Football Federation President Oh Gyu-sang: "Decided to stop operating the WK League"
5th Women's Football Federation President Oh Gyu-sang: "Decided to stop operating the WK League"
Blog Article
Oh Gyu-sang, the president of the Korea Women's Football Federation, a strong candidate for the 5th term, announced that he has decided to give up running the women's professional football WK League starting next season.
The federation claims that it can no longer afford to do so due to personnel and financial difficulties, but it will be difficult to avoid responsibility as the stability of the top women's soccer league that has lasted for 16 years is now threatened.
Chairman Oh said in a phone call with Yonhap News on the 14th, "Our original identity was as a purely amateur organization. Up until now, we had no choice but to take charge of the WK League, which is virtually professional, but due to circumstances, it is difficult to endure any longer."
He added, "We plan to focus our capabilities on developing young female athletes from elementary, middle, high school, and college levels," and "This is not an emotional decision. We have been considering separating the WK League and the federation for a long time."
The Korea Football Association's Sports Fair Play Committee approved Chairman Oh's application for reappointment on the 6th. As of now, there is no candidate to run against Chairman Oh, who has led the association since 2008, so a fifth term is likely.
Chairman Oh, who will serve as head of women's soccer for 20 years if he completes his term this time, plans to first take the step of separating the WK League and the federation once he forms the '5th executive committee.'
A significant portion of the league's administrative and financial capacity has been used to maintain the eight-team WK League system.
In particular, Icheon Daegyo, which was considered prestigious, suddenly disbanded in 2017, and the federation began operating Changnyeong WFC, which caused financial problems to worsen every year.
In recent years, the financial difficulties have worsened as subsidies from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism have been reduced and sponsors have left due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the National Tax Service's public interest corporation disclosure, the subsidy, which was maintained at around 3 billion won annually until 2021, decreased to 2.5 billion won in 2022, and fell to 2 billion won last year.
According to Changnyeong County, at least 1.2 billion won is spent each year on running the club. Of this, even after deducting various subsidies, hundreds of millions of won are returned each year as the federation's share.
This year, we didn't even have the capacity to do that, so we received about 700 million won in support from the Korea Football Association.
As a federation that has failed to create a revenue model through the WK League since its inception in 2009, the league has always considered separation as its financial difficulties are worsening as the league continues.
Last year, Chairman Oh, who contacted Michelle Kang, a Korean-American businesswoman and owner of the Washington Spieth (USA), Olympique Lyon Feminine (France), and London City Lions (England), considered giving her full authority to run the WK League, given her financial capabilities and vision.
In fact, it is known that Chairman Kang reviewed the acquisition or creation of a WK League team last year. He also looked for a home ground in the metropolitan area, but it is said that it did not proceed to a specific 파워볼 stage due to various administrative difficulties.
The federation's position is that the issue of how to run the WK League in the future is something the soccer world needs to work together to resolve, whether it be through the eight clubs establishing their own corporations or the Korea Football Association, the parent organization, stepping in.
Chairman Oh, who said that if he succeeds in winning the 5th term, he will transform the league into a 'pure amateur organization', announced that he will use the funds that were going into maintaining the WK League to strengthen administrative capabilities.
The federation office has only four people, and there are no specialized personnel needed to expand the base, such as marketing, public relations, finance, and international communications.
Chairman Oh said, "It's difficult, but if change is needed, I think now is the time." He added, "There are many things we need to fix and reflect on, but it's difficult to continue on this path."
He also emphasized that he would change his relationship with the Korea Football Association to ensure that it receives consistent budget support. He said he would request a budget from the association to establish an independent administration that does not rely on subsidies from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism or local governments.
With no clear operating entity in sight, the league has decided to step down without a viable alternative, and the stability of the WK League, which has had around 200 players active since 2009, is now at great risk.
The WK League, which is classified as a non-professional league despite being played by professional players, has not been able to generate its own source of income and has also seen a decline in spectator attendance during the period the league has been in charge of it.
According to the Korea Football Association's integrated computer system, the average number of spectators per WK League game this season was 261.
Changnyeong WFC had 146 people. Coincidentally, the team with the largest number of spectators was the military sports unit Mungyeong Sangmu, with an average of 455 people.
The average attendance of Suwon FC (183 people), the only team that charges admission, was less than 200 people.
Report this page