Park Ji-sung, co-chair of the K-Football Innovation Committee, speaks at the committee's fourth meeting held at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on July 27. [Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism]
Park Ji-sung, co-chair of the K-Football Innovation Committee, speaks at the committee's fourth meeting held at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on July 27. [Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism]

The K-Football Innovation Committee released a set of recommendations Tuesday on restructuring the electoral college for the Korea Football Association presidential election, following through on discussions from previous meetings.

The panel held a remote video meeting before publishing the recommendations, which center on three points: opening the election to all who meet the stated eligibility criteria to enhance fairness; broadening participation by players, coaches, referees and other on-field stakeholders to strengthen democratic representation; and pursuing the introduction of an electronic voting system while guaranteeing secret ballots and ensuring practical feasibility.

In its briefing materials, the committee — holding its fifth meeting since its launch — said the recommendations "aim to increase on-field participation and transparency, broadly following the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee's electoral college reform model while reflecting the specific characteristics of football, including professional, semi-professional and promotion-and-relegation league structures."

Under the proposed framework, the new electoral college would encompass professional players from K League 1 through K4, the women's WK League and the university U League, as well as recreational players representing K5 through K7 leagues and participants from the lifestyle sports festival, the President's Cup and the KFA chairman's cup. Registered coaches, registered referees, full member organizations, and K2 executives and delegates would also be included.

Based on 2025 figures, the committee estimated the total electoral college would number around 20,000, comprising roughly 4,000 to 6,000 professional players, a similar range of recreational players and coaches respectively, about 3,000 registered referees and approximately 1,000 others. The panel noted, however, that the figures would need to be verified through a precise calculation process to account for overlaps. By comparison, the electoral college for the 55th KFA presidential election in February 2025 had just 192 members.

The KFA said it would conduct internal discussions before proceeding with the necessary regulatory amendments and implementation steps. The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee committed to completing revisions to its member federation regulations — which form the basis for the recommendations — by the end of this month, while the Korea Professional Football League and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism agreed to provide administrative and fiscal support.

The committee said its next meeting would focus intensively on governance reform and concrete measures and budgets to systematically develop youth players. It also said it would organize a public hearing as soon as possible to present the issues discussed so far and those still ahead, and to gather public input.


yjc@heraldcorp.com