K-Football Innovation Committee: "KFA Presidential Election with 20,000-Strong Electorate to Be Held This Year"

The upcoming election for the president of the Korea Football Association (KFA), which will feature a drastically expanded electorate of roughly 20,000 people, is expected to take place within this year.

The K-Football Innovation Committee held a meeting led by Co-Chairman Park Ji-sung in the conference room of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, this afternoon (August 11), announcing follow-up measures regarding the KFA presidential election and major discussion results.

Previously, the Innovation Committee held a virtual video meeting on August 4 and announced a recommendation regarding the composition of the KFA presidential electorate.

The core proposal was to significantly expand the total electorate from the previous 200 or so people to around 20,000, based on 2025 figures, including approximately 4,000 to 6,000 professional players, amateur players, and coaches each, about 3,000 registered referees, and roughly 1,000 others.

According to the Innovation Committee, the KFA has accepted this recommendation to expand the electorate, agreed to swiftly undergo follow-up procedures such as revising its articles of association, and decided to hold a transparent and democratic election within the year.

The government and the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee also plan to actively provide the necessary administrative and financial support.

Chairman Park stated his plan to conclude the election within the year.

"Although preparation time is required procedurally, both the committee members and the KFA share the consensus that it should not go past this year, no matter how late it gets," he said. "As the association also wants to hold the election promptly and is actively stepping up, we expect it to proceed within the year."

He also expressed thoughts on realistic voting methods given the large scale of participants.

"Considering the electorate size close to 20,000, the existing voting method has limitations, so we plan to discuss and decide on adopting new systems such as electronic or online voting with the working-level staff," Park added.

An event to directly gather opinions from inside and outside the football community on these pending issues will also be arranged.

The Innovation Committee will hold an 'open listening session' combined with its 7th meeting at 2:00 PM on August 19 in the main auditorium of the KFA Stadium.

Football figures and fans will be able to participate directly, and various on-site opinions will be heard, centered around measures to nurture youth players.

Meanwhile, the Innovation Committee agreed that innovation is needed to enhance transparency and professionalism regarding the national team manager appointment system, and decided to review improvement measures by listening to on-site opinions.

Regarding this, Chairman Park added, "The Innovation Committee cannot directly get involved in the current appointment of an interim manager. However, for the appointment body to bring in a great permanent head coach in the future, we will at least draw up recommendations to establish the best possible system within regulations."

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.