Gwangju FC Controversy Never Ends...Korea Professional Football Federation to hold finance committee to discuss fiscal consolidation

May 23, 2025

Gwangju FC Controversy Never Ends...Korea Professional Football Federation to hold finance committee to discuss fiscal consolidation
photo courtesy of the Korea Professional Football Association



Gwangju FC Controversy Never Ends...Korea Professional Football Federation to hold finance committee to discuss fiscal consolidation
photo courtesy of the Korea Professional Football Association
Gwangju FC's 'controversy' is endless. The Korea Professional Football Federation is scheduled to hold a finance committee meeting on the 27th. At this meeting, regular screening will be conducted for all K-League clubs. In addition, it is reported that Gwangju plans to discuss the violation of the K-League's fiscal consolidation system.

The Korea Professional Football Federation judged that Gwangju submitted a budget bill that overestimated its profits after reviewing the current budget plan held in early 2024. Gwangju is said to have failed to meet the profit portion promised to the Professional Football Federation. The decision of the finance committee to be held this time will determine whether to hold a reward and punishment committee. Depending on the situation, there is a possibility of disciplinary action.

Gwangju has been at the center of the issue in succession. Recently, it was suspected of failing to pay the solidarity contribution of Asani (Albania), who was hired in 2023. Solidarity contributions are money paid when a professional player moves internationally to a team in another country before the contract expires and there is a transfer fee. Clubs that recruit players through transfers must pay a certain percentage of solidarity contributions to each team to which the player belongs from the age of 12 to 23. FIFA implemented the 'Clearing House System' in November 2022 to simplify the complicated process. It is a form of calculating the distribution of solidarity contributions and training compensation from FIFA's 'Clearing House' and distributing them to the club.




FIFA ordered the Gwangju club to pay about $3,100 (about 4.3 million won) in solidarity contributions to Asani's former team. Although Gwangju requested payment twice last year, it seems to have decided that it did not pay. FIFA eventually put Gwangju on the list of prohibited registration. The disciplinary action took effect on December 17, 2024. The disciplinary deadline is 'until payment is made. A fine of 50 million Swiss francs (about 8.4 million won) for joint contributions and unpaid payments will be removed from the list only after full payment is confirmed.

Gwangju FC Controversy Never Ends...Korea Professional Football Federation to hold finance committee to discuss fiscal consolidation
photo courtesy of the Korea Professional Football Association
The problem is that the transfer market opened immediately after the disciplinary point. The K League held a regular registration period (winter transfer market) from January 1st to March 27th. During this period, Gwangju recruited 10 players, including Hayes, Ju Se-jong Jin Si-woo, Min Sang-ki, Hwang Jae-hwan, Park In-hyuk, Park Jung-in, Kwon Sung-yoon, Yoo Je-ho, and Kwak Sung-hoon. If you were aware of the ban on recruiting, you should not have recruited them. In the process, the Korea Football Association, which oversees player registration through the Professional Football Federation, a higher-level organization, registered players. As a result, the association, the federation, and the Gwangju club violated FIFA's disciplinary action. In response, the batting team insisted that Gwangju should be punished for forfeiting and losing, saying it violated fair competition. However, the Korea Football Association (KFA) said on the 16th that it was caused by an intentional administrative mistake in relation to FIFA's ban on player registration due to Gwangju FC's recent failure to pay solidarity contributions, so it is too much to judge the players in Gwangju who played in the games so far as unqualified players.

The KFA confirmed on the 22nd that 'FIFA Clearing House has received solidarity contributions to be paid by Gwangju. Accordingly, the disciplinary proceedings against Gwangju will be terminated immediately. It sent an official letter informing them that the ban on player registration will be lifted. Gwangju has been banned from recruiting new players since December 17 last year due to unpaid solidarity contributions. On the FIFA registration ban page, Gwangju was confirmed to have been deleted as of the 21st. But the case is not closed yet. The question remains how FIFA will interpret players recruited during the registration ban.






This article was translated by Naver AI translator.