The Korea Professional Football Association Says, "Managing grass without experts, holding back the K-League"... "Calling for More Professional Personnel, Budget Expansion"
The Korea Professional Football Association Says, "Managing grass without experts, holding back the K-League"... "Calling for More Professional Personnel, Budget Expansion"
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Lawn management without experts is holding back the K League...Voices to improve the players' association
The Korea Professional Footballers Association (hereinafter referred to as the Korea Professional Footballers Association) held the first men's board meeting in 2025 to focus on grass management in domestic soccer stadiums. The board of directors dealt with the poor state of grass in domestic stadiums and measures to improve them in depth.
Chairman Lee Keun-ho, Vice Chairman Lee Chung-yong, Kim Min-woo, Kim Jin-soo, Yoon Seok-young, Jo Su-hyuk, Jung Da-hwon, Hwang Seok-ho, Baek Dong-gyu, and Secretary-General Kim Hoon-ki attended the board meeting.
The biggest issue at the board meeting was the current status and problems of the grass conditions in domestic stadiums. Kim Jin-soo, director of the Korea Players Association, said, "Since the recent opening of the K-League, there have been criticisms that the grass conditions have been sluggish in various stadiums. In particular, in the case of the Seoul World Cup Stadium, the grass has been frozen, increasing the risk of players' performance and injury. These problems seem to be a combination of factors such as adjusting the game schedule, climate change, and lack of expertise in the management body. In this situation, the damage is entirely seen by the players. Players are exposed to serious injury threats. Therefore, the players' lives are in danger."
Kim Hoon-ki, Secretary-General of the Players' Association, said, "We believe that we should seek ways to improve domestic lawn management by referring to advanced overseas cases. In Japan, lawn management experts from the Japanese Football Association's Facilities Committee are applying management methods tailored to the characteristics of each stadium. They maintain the quality of the lawn by dealing with various topics such as responding to climate change, solving the lack of sunlight, and overseeding methods. It is simply systematic and managed by experts."
In addition, Kim said, "The association recently visited England to have business exchanges with the English association. The English Premier League manages grass by utilizing advanced equipment such as hybrid grass, skylights, blowers, air conditioners, retractable roofs, automatic irrigation systems, and floor hot water pipes. Such a system costs tens of billions of won. Korea also needs active investment from clubs and local governments."
In the case of overseas, grass experts reside and operate customized management systems, but most stadiums in Korea are currently owned by local governments, and the Facilities Management Corporation is in charge of managing grass. However, due to a lack of budget and expertise, grass quality is deteriorated, and the management system itself has structural limitations.
"Most stadiums are owned by local governments, and local facilities management agencies are in charge of grass management," said Kim Hoon-ki, secretary-general of the Korea Football Association. They lack expertise in grass on soccer fields and treat grass only as simple facilities, and lack of interest in improving quality of the ground directly related to players' safety or performance. It is simply a place to make profits. There is no professional management system."
In order to solve this structural problem, the Players' Association proposed the following measures. The Players' Association saw that it was necessary to cultivate professional grass management personnel and deploy them in each stadium to increase management expertise, and requested to increase professional manpower. In addition, it was revealed that the budget for grass management should be expanded and used efficiently to support the introduction and maintenance of advanced equipment.
"I heard that the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism analyzes problems and causes through a thorough investigation into the condition of grass," said Kim Hoon-ki, secretary-general of the Athletes' Association. We look forward to rational and groundbreaking improvement measures. In addition, I know that there are many circular positions in the case of public officials, but in the case of grass management, I hope that professional personnel will manage it for a long time as it requires expertise. We really need experts," he explained. 토토사이트
Meanwhile, through this board meeting, the players' association reiterated the importance of grass management and vowed to take the lead in improving the domestic soccer environment through cooperation with related organizations.