▲ The Olympic Center building where the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee is located
The government budget proposal for the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee (KSOC) for next year has been set at a record-high 448.4 billion won.
On the 4th, the KSOC announced its budget proposal for 2027, featuring significantly expanded funding for major initiatives such as promoting general public sports, enhancing national team competitiveness, and strengthening fairness within the sports community.
This budget proposal focuses on fulfilling the current administration's national agenda tasks of vitalizing nationwide public sports and expanding investment in elite sports.
In particular, a large number of requests raised by athletes and coaches during the visit of Minister of Planning and Budget Park Hong-keun to the Jincheon National Training Center last May were reflected, significantly increasing the elite sports budget, including improvements to the training environment of the national training center and the expansion of overseas training camps.
Broken down by sector, 21.6 billion won has been increased compared to the previous year to restore trust and enhance transparency in the sports community.
A new budget of 1.1 billion won was allocated for establishing a fair disciplinary system and improving sports organization election systems.
In addition, a total of 26.1 billion won was assigned, which includes drastically increasing the number of resident referees from 137 to 586 to enhance fairness in judgment, and newly investing 5 billion won in the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) referee assistance equipment.
An additional 56.9 billion won will be poured into the youth and public sports sectors.
The budget for the youth sports foundation establishment project was set at 37 billion won, an increase of 33.2 billion won from the previous year, and 47 billion won was also allocated to the Sports Division League project, a tiered public sports league.
A friendly sports class project (2 billion won) dispatching instructors for toddlers in depopulated areas was also newly established.
The elite sports sector, including support for national team training, was also increased by 31.8 billion won.
Included are the creation of a 10 billion-won air mat training facility for winter sports considering sport characteristics, overseas training camps (5.6 billion won), the establishment of an AI athletic performance integrated analysis system (1.5 billion won), and the establishment of a pre-training camp for the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics (0.9 billion won).
An additional 23.8 billion won was allocated for improving aging facilities at the national training center.
Furthermore, to strengthen the fostering system for promising athletes, 6.8 billion won was increased, including extending the domestic training days for national team candidate athletes from 28 to 40 days per year.
In addition to these, budgets were reflected for participation in the 2027 Chungcheong-region Summer World University Games and Olympic preparations (9.3 billion won), making the cost of participating in the National Sports Festival more realistic (3.7 billion won), and improving the treatment of sports industry workers (3 billion won).
KSOC President Yoo Seung-min stated, "This budget proposal will serve as an important turning point leading a great transformation in South Korean sports," adding, "We will swiftly drive sports reform by incorporating the voices of the public and the field so that we can be reborn as a sports community trusted by the people."
He continued, "Last May, Minister Park Hong-keun personally visited the Jincheon Training Center to listen to the voices of athletes and coaches and carefully examined the training field, and it is even more meaningful in that these field demands led to substantive budget expansion."
Lastly, he said, "I thank the Ministry of Planning and Budget and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism for sending exceptional interest and support to the sports field, and I ask for the active interest and cooperation of the National Assembly so that the public can enjoy a healthy and happy life through sports and South Korean sports can take a leap forward once again."
(Photo: Yonhap News)
※
Copying, redistribution, and unauthorized use in AI training are strictly prohibited.