K League Headlines: July 27th – August 2nd

In what has been a somewhat eventful week for Korean footballing news outlets, with one particular story making international headlines, K League United's Chris Park returns to take a look at the other articles you may have missed.

[K League] K League Club Rules to be Strengthened

From now on, newly established K League clubs will have to have more than 20 administrative employees to secure capabilities such as promotion, marketing, social contribution and ticket sales to build the club's business model. This is because, in the past, most teams primarily concentrated on team management and performance. However, the focus has now shifted on to strengthening teams' self-sustaining power through the establishment of a more complete business model.

Source: Star News (Park Su-jin)
Date: July 29th, 2019

[Lower Leagues] Outline of Division System from First Division to Seventh Tiers

The outline of a semi-pro league is being revealed that will put a bridge between professional and amateur football. The Korean Football Association will receive applications by Sept 30th for those who wish to participate in the KFA's third and fourth division from eight National League teams, 20 amateur K3 League teams, as well as parties who wish to establish a team to compete. Afterwards, there are plans to finalize the third and fourth division teams in December after reviewing documents and conducting on-site inspections.

The K3 and K4 clubs can participate in the league in an independent corporate form. Therefore, a plan should be attached to transform the club's governance structure by Sept. 30th next year. Twelve teams from the current amateur K3 League (Advanced) and eight teams from the lower league (Basic) are expected to be relocated as they are dispersed into the new K3 and K4 teams.

Source: Xsports News (Heo In-whoi)
Date: July 31st, 2019

[KFA] Final Confirmation of the Korean Football Center in Cheonan City

The bid for the second National Football Center in Korea was finalized on Wednesday. The Cheonan city government and the Korean Football Association signed an agreement at Cheonan City Hall earlier in the day to confirm the bid for the Korea Football Center with Mayor Koo Bon-young and KFA President Chung Mong-kyu in attendance. Under the agreement, the two agencies will create natural grass and artificial fields, small stadiums, indoor training centers, youth hostels, football museums, tennis courts, and gyms by Jan. 31, 2024. The final confirmed site for the soccer complex is 478,000 square meters. It will be completed in 2024.

"This is a day that marks a big milestone in the history of Korean football," said Chung Mong-kyu, president of the KFA. "I realized how much citizens care about football by seeing the citizens of Cheonan who want the football center. The soccer complex to be built this time is the future of Korean football," he said.

Source: Newsis (Lee Jong-ik)
Date: Aug 1st, 2019

[Youth] Jeju International Youth Football Tournament 2019 opens on Wednesday

Seogwipo City announced on Thursday that they will hold the 2019 Jeju International Youth Football Tournament for eight days starting with the opening match on August 12 after confirming the participation of 20 teams. Marking its third anniversary this year, the tournament will feature youth teams from prestigious foreign football clubs such as Newcastle United and Cardiff City from the U.K., Dortmund, and Augsburg from Germany, Palmeiras from Brazil, PSV Eindhoven from the Netherlands and LA Galaxy from the U.S. A drawing ceremony will be held on July 11, and the group stage will be divided into five groups of four teams.

In particular, this year's event also provided a venue for mutual exchanges, with a leadership conference to foster youth athletes as a side event to the opening ceremony, allowing discussion on the nation's youth development policy and development plans for participating. "It is said that domestic and foreign football officials have strengthened the image of a footballing city" the city government said. "We will make efforts to revitalize the local economy through sports in the future."

Source: Newsis (Kang Kyung-tae)
Date: Aug 1st, 2019

[Team K League] Cristiano Ronaldo Deletes Korean Comments from SNS Amid Criticism

Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, who was involved in last week's "no show controversy" between Team K League and Juventus, is continuing his avoidance of the issue by deleting critical comments from South Korean soccer fans on his SNS accounts. Ronaldo had earlier been publicly criticized by South Korean fans and others for his "no show controversy" but his attitude has been to disregard them. He also upset supporters earlier this week after he posted a video clip of him running a treadmill as soon as he returned home after the controversy, saying, "It's good to be back home," and that he was happily training again, despite claiming to have been suffering from muscle fatigue a day prior.

[LISTEN: Team K League vs Juventus Talking Points]

Ronaldo was scheduled to play in friendly matches against Team K League and Juventus at Seoul World Cup Stadium on July 26. According to some clauses of the contract released by the organizers, Ronaldo had to play on the field at least 45 minutes of the game, and since it was his second visit to Korea since 2007, he was also scheduled to hold a fan signing and meeting with Korean fans before the match which had to be cancelled. The megastar went on to not feature for a single minute in the match and has been at the center of the controversy because of this failure to meet contractual obligations. In the response, Korean fans filed a lawsuit against the organizer, The Fasta, demanding a refund of tickets and other damages.

Source: Sports Seoul (Youn So-youn)
Date: Aug 2nd, 2019