Chung Mong-kyu, chairman of the Korea Football Association (KFA), has decided to seek a fourth term. Chung plans to ask the Sports Fair Committee of the Korea Sports Council to review his term on Dec. 2. “We have decided to submit a letter of resignation as the current chairman along with the submission of a continuous hearing to the KFA,” a KFA source said. “If the KFA qualifies him after passing the Fair Trade Commission’s review, he is determined to run for the next four years. Around Dec. 25-27, the registration period for the next presidential candidate, he will announce his speech during the previous term and plans to run the association for the next four years.”
Chung rose to the top post of KFA in 2013. He was re-elected “unanimously” in 2016, and stood alone in 2021 to win his third term without voting. The election for the 55th president of the Korea Football Association will be held on January 8 next year. The election committee will be organized until December 12. The three-day registration period starts from December 25, 2025, and the new chairman’s term will start from the regular general meeting on January 22 after the election on January 8, 2025.
If Chung wants to become the next chairman, he must submit his resignation letter 50 days before the start of his term. He also needs to pass the Fair Trade Commissions review to seek the fourth term. There seems to be no big problem. The Fair Trade Commission will be divided into two categories of entry into executives of international organizations and group contributions, with 50 points for quantitative evaluation and 50 points for qualitative evaluation. Chung was elected as an executive member of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in May. He is running alone as an executive member of the AFC committee, which is a share of East Asia, and has been elected as an additional candidate without voting in accordance with the articles of association. Chung
s term ends in 2027 at the AFCs regular general meeting. As Chung scored 96 points out of 100 in the Fair Trade Commission
s evaluation when he ran for the third term, he is optimistic about Chung`s passing.
Chairman Chung’s bid for the fourth term also included his will to make a head-on breakthrough. Since July, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has conducted a specific audit of the overall operation of the KFA in the face of controversy over the appointment of a national team coach. At the announcement of the audit results on the 5th, he demanded severe disciplinary action against Chairman Chung beyond suspension of qualifications. Chairman Chung said it is difficult to agree and decided to seek to recover his honor through running.
Concerns have also been raised over the possibility that the KFA chief, who is supposed to be politically independent, could set an unfavorable precedent. FIFA is extremely sensitive to the autonomy and independence of football associations in each country. If a third party, including the government or the National Assembly, intervenes excessively, the KFA will be forced to withdraw through disciplinary action. The current situation in Korean soccer is as precarious as a tightrope. In addition, if the KFA is forced to surrender due to a series of government interventions, the KFA could degenerate into an organization that the government can freely choose.
Chung’s affection for the Cheonan soccer center that will be completed next year also played a role. The Cheonan center is Chung’s flagship project that he is pushing for to build a new 100 years of Korean soccer. Chung is committed to finishing the construction project with his own hands. If Chung lets go now, the KFA will be able to sit in a “debt pile.” He believes that only he can untie the knot in the end.
However, the draft is expected to continue to blow strongly. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has decided to conduct an on-site audit of the Korea Sports Council and the KFA from the 2nd of next month. The atmosphere for the presidential election is heating up in earnest. At this exquisite time, an intensive audit is scheduled to be conducted directly by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the “management and supervision department.” If unexpected allegations of irregularities are revealed, it could be another variable. 스포츠토토
As Chung opened the door to his bid for a fourth term in office, 12 years after 2013, he was elected as the head of the Korean national soccer team. Heo Jung-moo, former chairman of the Daejeon Hana Citizen’s board of directors, first announced his candidacy for the chairman’s election on Saturday. “Everyone wants the KFA to come back to life, but no one has come forward in the face of huge barriers. That is why I have decided not to remain as a bystander anymore. Someone, out of a sense of duty to stop this fall, decided to become a small grain of wheat to revive our national soccer team,” he said, clearly drawing a line under the current chairman Chung Mong-kyu.