This year’s first meeting of the Executive Committee was held at the KFA House in Seoul on Wednesday. President Chung Mong-gyu began his third tenure in the organisation, taking office as the 54th president of Korea Football Association.

KFA announced a board of 22 executives including six vice presidents, five chairmen of subcommittee and 11 directors, whilst appointing two supervisors. The 54th Board of Executives consists of 29 executives and two supervisors, with the remaining six executives to be appointed by the president at a later date.

There were some elements of surprise in the appointment of six vice presidents, whose expertise in respective fields was taken into consideration: Hong Eun-ah (41, Professor at Ewha Women’s University / Women’s Football & Refereeing), Kim Byung-ji (51, President of KIMBJ Sports Culture Centre / Amateur Football & Infrastructure), Kim Dae-eun (56, President of Jeonbuk Football Association / Local Associations), Cho Hyun-jae (61, National Football Centre), Lee Yong-soo (62, Professor at Sejong University / Techniques & Strategies), and Choi Young-il (55, Operations). Professor Hong has become the first woman ever to be appointed as the vice president of KFA.

Consistency was the keyword in appointing five chairmen of subcommittee, with Kim Pan-gon (52, National Teams), Cho Geung-yeon (60, Competitions), Yoo Dae-woo (69, Ethics) and Seo Chang-hee (58, Fair Play) reappointed as the chairmen of their respective subcommittees. Lee Chun-soo (40, former Director of Football Operations at Incheon United) was newly appointed as the chairman of Social Contribution Subcommittee. Chairman Kim Pan-gon has stepped down from the vice presidency in order to concentrate on the preparations for the forthcoming FIFA World Cup.

As announced earlier last week, former coach Park Kyung-hoon was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer, whilst General Secretary Chun Han-jin was reappointed to the office for a second term.

Meanwhile, there were some drastic changes in the board of directors. Former coaches of amateur and professional clubs have been invited to have their say on the current matters, whilst experts from various fields – including broadcasting, match operations and administrations – have been appointed as well.

Cho Yeon-sang (54, General Secretary of Korea Professional Football League), Park Gong-won (55, former General Manager at Seoul Eland FC), Oh Seung-in (56, Coach of Kwangwoon University), Yang Seung-woon (59, Kwangwoon Electronics High School), Han Sang-sin (60, former Coach of Iridong Middle School) and Choi Gwang-won (55, Coach of Daedong Elementary School) will represent their parts respectively, along with Park Chae-hee (48, Professor at Korea National Sport University), Kim Jin-hee (40, Match Commissioner) and Shin Ah-young (34, Television Announcer).

Administrative supervisors were reappointed, with Kang Seong-deok (56, President of Chungbuk Football Association) and Lee Tae-ho (60, former Vice President of Samil PwC) set to continue their roles at KFA.

President Chung Mong-gyu stated on the appointment of board members: “We have revamped the board with over 60 per cent of the members being newly appointed directors, except for the subcommittee chairmen whom we need for the sake of consistency in our policies. We’ve also appointed female members to important positions such as a first-ever female vice president, while attempting to bring about a change inside the organisation with a younger generation of directors who are in their early fifties on average.”

Additionally, the Executive Committee amended the statute concerning the term of executives, which was reduced from four to two years for the 54th Board of Executives except the president – with a view to evaluating the activities during the first two years before extending the term.

Meanwhile, the committee also approved the settlement of the financial year 2020 – during which KFA recorded ₩66,480 million in revenue with ₩70,290 million in expense. Compared with the settlement of 2019 (₩94,150 million / ₩92,210 million), the figures have reduced to 29.4% and 23.8% respectively.

In terms of the revenue, the COVID-19 outbreak has made a crucial impact on the match-related income, with ticket sales dropping down by 99.3% to ₩60 million and broadcasting rights down 78.2% to ₩2,230 million. However, the damage was minimised thanks to the efforts to reduce the expenses, which was down by ₩22,000 million as well.

A KFA official said: “We’ve managed to reduce the deficit and avoid the worst thanks to all the executives and the staff joining our efforts to minimise the expenses, despite such huge losses in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.”