The KFA Reformation

I assume every agents pursue their self interests. Maybe non-Korean agents are just more skilled at meeting both the client's (player's) long term interest and his/her own.

I'm also beginning to wonder if Korean agents lack the connections.

 

Another reason, also, I reckon is the trend. Until mid-2000s, most players going to desert leagues and CSL were players close to retirement, wanting to cash out. But 2010 onward, the trend changed to current NT members promising potential NT players. I reckon this would seriously encourage players moving to CSL or desert leagues, as they know they would no longer be considered K-League rejects, while they would not be risking their NT career either. If anything, given that a brunt of our NT being based in CSL and desert leagues, it's seen as a move up from K-League in some ways.

Take Ahn Jung Hwan's agent for example. He didn't even understand what kind of ownership/contract Ahn had, which effectively ruined Ahn's career.

 

Are you sure about the job security thing? Most transfers to China/desert have been from bigger clubs...Seoul, Pohang, etc. Is job security really an issue for them? Honestly at this point I think a lot of players simply see CSL/desert as a step up. As you mentioned, NT players getting called up from there, more money, more big-name coaches and players...obviously doesn't explain why Japanese players haven't gone abroad though.

 

Yeah, I agree, probably this is a more likely reason.

 

That's exactly what my guess is about. My guess is that it takes one or two NT players to start moving then when others notice that they are still under consideration for NT and etc, they follow suit. Also, younger players would no longer view those players as 'failed K-Leaugers' but a success story. That hasn't happened for Japan.

Again, this is a guess, honestly if someone had the answer, something would have been done by now.

 

Yeah, if prestige is the reason, there's probably no way of reversing this, short of something extremely unlikely like a future NT manager (obviously not Stielike) refusing to call up players from there or loads of money being pumped into K-League.

It does seem to me though that even before the drain to China/ME, Korean footballers were much more willing to move abroad. I seem to recall J League teams having on average 2-3 Koreans on their teams while we would have maybe 2 or 3 Japanese in the whole league. And even now our NT GKs are playing there, while I can't remember the last Japanese who was called up while playing in Korea. (although I can't say I pay too much attention to what's going in Japan...)

 

This is definitely true, though I wonder if it's a function of there just not being nearly as many teams in Korea as there is in Japan. A lot of kids go to Japan straight out of hs don't they? Japanese teenagers would never even consider coming the KOR for youth development

 

so is it agreed upon that the great limiting factor here is just $$? Surely that cant be the whole picture..

 

I remember LYP saying that pro athletes are inclined to move abroad, because offers abroad make them feel appreciated (like a star) and allows players to move away from "sometimes stifling Korean football environment".

Maybe Japanese players don't have this strong urge because pro footballers find Japan an "okay" or even good environment to play football professionally?

 

I don't know how seriously to treat this thread. Petition? Seriously? But fine, I'll bite.

There is only one problem with this league and the problem is that it doesn't make any money. We can have the best quality youth players, teams stacked with David Villa, Andrea Pirlo and Frank Lampard - doesn't equate with change unless the league is making money by signing lucrative TV deals.

So unless the petition comes with a blank check, we're wasting our time.

 

Again, it comes down to this. Make the league more popular. Force the clubs to concentrate on grassroots development and marketing by threatening to relegate or ban them from the league as is the case in J-League.

Honestly, I have no clue why they are planning on expanding K-League Challenge despite the fact that all of their clubs are struggling with poor attendances and are making significant losses.

I mean, K-League Challenge currently has an average attendance of about 2,000, and among them over half of them are free entries. To compare it to other leagues, both J2-League and China League One attracts a crowd of 7,000 on average. Even J3-League, which has 3 U-23 teams playing in it, commands an average crowd of almost 3,000.

 

Realistically? They can't. But I'll play. I'd ideally like to sell TV rights inclusive of national team games, similar to what the MLS did. For every national team game, you can add in a clause that they need to air an X number of K-League games. For any World Cup game, they need to air X+alpha. Sound easy?

South Korea is a very different place where they air Premier League games for free on TV and on Naver. A subscription or a pay-per-view model simply does not exist. Broadcasting stations will not know how to make money off their broadcasting rights and walk away. Besides, unlike America, the country has a concept of the "general right of audience". In America this applies for nightly news on public broadcasting stations only (i.e., PBS/ABC). In Korea, this is very loosely defined. This is why all major stations will air the same Korea game, at the same time. They don't know how to make money and it's pathetic.

But, lets assume that we're able to hard-ball SBS/KBS/MBC; they'd call our bluff and we'll backstab them by selling all rights exclusive to cable companies like JTBC. KBO's broadcasting rights are around 22 million dollars a year whereas K-League is a tenth of that amount. So, with the World Cup premiums, we'll charge them 220 million dollars. Here comes the "general right of audience" clause again - the average viewer has a right to watch something of "national interest" without being forced to pay for a cable subscription. Hence, JTBC will be forced to share their broadcasting rights with KBS, since KBS is publicly funded. KBS won't pay JTBC a dime and JTBC will want to re-negotiate. This time, they'll have an army of corporate lawyers citing the lower viewership of the K-League in general and calling our contract terms as "unreasonable". There will be increased pressure to re-negotiate broadcasting rights, year after year.

The point being is that the KFA is owned and operated by the Hyundai family and they're not stupid. They're well connected and probably have even thought about it.

The answer is that unless the K-League can generate revenue on its own, there will be no TV deals. Period. They might be willing to pay for exclusive national team games but they will be relentless and unaccepting of the K-League. Basically, this league fcked. Why would anyone want to pay for a product that nobody wants?

And moreover, even if we do win that 220 million dollar deal, how do we get the KFA to do the "right" things to the K-League? The K-League Association is a stand-alone entity from the KFA.

 

You see, this is a common misconception. There is no relationship between skill level (youth development) and the popularity of the league. The English Premiership produces shite talent; yet, they're the most popular. The Everdiesie historically produced tons of talent; their league is shite. As for marketing, you can market your sub-standard product all you want but if there is no demand, nobody is buying.

The K-League is suffering from a classic supply chain problem: You've made the same sub-standard product after product and it's cannibalizing each other. For instance, there are electronics companies like Panasonic that made 20 different CD players, 40 different brands of blank CD's, 10 different television models, 50 different radios and 100 kinds of earphones, telephones, and what have you. Nobody wanted any of their shite, and since their entire business model and manufacturing processes were aligned to make their piles of shite, they fell behind the times and change required heavy capital investment. I mean, heavy. So heavy that they couldn't make new factories to produce LCD's; so heavy that creating a brand new mobile phone division was unthinkable. And no financial institution wanted to give them credit to do so since they weren't selling shite. And then their products sat at a warehouse all day that went into clearance. The K-League is this warehouse and the players are the CD players and television sets; they all got different model names but at the end of the day, they are the same damn thing and nobody can tell the difference. It is a business that should've ended a long time ago. The only thing I am thankful of is China who's willing to buy clearance items in bulk while still giving me a premium (in reality, we should be giving them a bulk discount).

This league is unfixable. To fix it, they need to stop it completely and re-design it from the ground up. For Korea's market, I'd say start the league with about 8 teams, similar to the KBO.

 

Holy mother of Econ knowledge bombs

 

Koreans just aren't into football like that. They'll watch the KNT for their dose of nationalism and watch foreign leagues/KPAs if need be. Set up new Kleague clubs in a bunch of small towns in England and they'll have a larger following than FC Seoul within a year.

 

i think a lot of people already know the k-league is unfixable. the corporations dont care to make money from the soccer teams, and citizen clubs are owned by local governments and you know how inefficient governments are.

one step in the right direction is individual owners (not corporations) being able to buy the teams. this will never ever happen. Im going to use the old Daejeon slogan to emphasize this: It's Korea!

Korean football also needs to lax on the military-esque training. K-League needs to produce drama, and this involves storylines with prima donna type players and a*ssholes roaming. Say what you want about sh*tty ESPN but ESPN and channels alike emphasize dramas and storylines for each season (every sport); this engages the fat american idiots to watching it and being more interested in it. I dont give a damn about Steph Curry's wife's tweets but people seem to. LeBron sleeping with some other player's mother. Bryce Harper being a jerk. Bartolo Colon being a fat old snob hitting homeruns and walking. These things are magnified and creates more drama and interest. Korean sports do not have this.

 

Completely tangential to the point I'm making, given that I was answering this:

Like you said, popularity has nothing to do with talent. Broadcasters will pay more money if there is more demand regardless of the standard of football.

 

Also football is a trend sport in Korea. Ppl only gives a sh1t if the team is doing well. Its the same for the national team. I am astonished by how we are consistently producing the best teams/players in Asia

 

In terms of player talent, Korea will probably fall behind Japan sometime in the future.