Seoul: A senior South Korean football executive announced that the sport's national governing body will engage in discussions with FIFA regarding a ban imposed on Gwangju FC, a local K League 1 club, which surfaced last week.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Kim Seung-hee, the newly appointed executive director of the Korea Football Association (KFA), addressed the issue at his introductory press conference. FIFA imposed a registration ban on Gwangju FC on December 17, 2024, due to the club's failure to pay $3,000 in solidarity contributions related to the signing of forward Jasir Asani from Albania. This fee is meant to be distributed among the player's former clubs from ages 12 to 23.
Unaware of the ban, Gwangju proceeded to acquire about a dozen players last winter, subsequently participating in 14 K League 1 matches and two Korea Cup tournament matches this year. They also competed in the AFC Champions League Elite tournament. Following the late revelation of the ban, other K League 1 clubs argued that all matches played by Gwangju this season should be recorded as 3-0 losses due to the use of ineligible players. Pohang Steelers, having lost 1-0 to Gwangju on Sunday, filed a complaint with the K League office on Monday.
Gwangju FC attributed the failure to pay the required fee to an employee who went on leave in September 2024 without sharing the necessary information with colleagues. The club also did not learn of the ban immediately as the KFA had forwarded FIFA's email about the penalty to the absent employee, which was not promptly shared with other team members.
The Korea Professional Football League (K League) was also unaware of the ban because the KFA did not include the league in the email communications from FIFA, as confirmed by a league official.
In response to the situation, Kim expressed the KFA's commitment to prevent similar occurrences in the future. "We will be in communication with FIFA and the AFC," Kim stated. "We will try to get to the bottom of the problem. We will have discussions with the K League and make sure something like this never happens again."
FIFA's "Clearing House," established in October 2018 and operational since November 2022, aims to centralize and automate payments between related clubs and promote financial transparency. Kim noted that South Korea, along with some other nations, is still in the process of familiarizing itself with the new system.
The KFA previously stated that deeming new Gwangju players ineligible this season would be "excessive," attributing the situation to an "unintentional administrative mistake." Kim reiterated that the KFA had "carefully considered" the stability of K League operations and emphasized that there was no malicious intent from Gwangju FC. The KFA has sent a letter to FIFA, detailing the situation with factual explanations.