The need for change in K-League

Before the youth systems, the K-League needs to show some true marketting. TEams are still used for the advertisement of their mother corporation and advertisement of the clubs are horrible. The people don't go to the games because they dont feel a connection to the team. A league with no crowd, is a dead one.

 

korea CANNOT do this. we need to reform the educational system before any of this ajax whatever has a chance to come through.

 

Some clarification on the Ajax model of youth football.

Ajax has always stressed both a football education and an academic education. Frank de Boer, a graduate of the youth academy of Ajax, once stated that the teachers at the academy stressed academics as much as football because "an educated footballer will make smart decisions and will think on the pitch." I'm not saying that the graduates of Ajax, like Bergkamp, Kluivert, Seedorf and Davids today are Ph.Ds playing football. But to classify youth academies as nothing more than physical camps that produce footballers is not correct, especially if you are referring to Ajax's Football Academy. They're motto is "why take 5 steps with the ball when you can do it in 2 steps." This comes from playing smart football.

 

Good point, Almogavar and Korea Fighting. But there is a fundamental gap between Holland and Korea that is not bridged simply by emphasizing academics in a football academy. You have to get kids to wnat to go first and pursuade their parents to set them free to do it.

In Holland, there is no shame in not going to college. In fact, less than 10% of high school students go on to university. I spent a little time during my high school days living in Holland with a family with two high school sons around my age. Both were pretty smart guys, but neither had plans to go to university. They both decided to attend high schools that are designed for people who will learn a profession that does not require attending college. They represent the majority of Dutch kids. One became a lab technician and part-time musician and the other a jazz guitarist. What I am saying is that there is an emphasis on practical learning rather than the accumulation of academic degrees there. In Korea, even people who have no business going to college end up in some college.

This is an important distinction, because to a 14-year old in Korea, up to now it's been too risky for most, socially and otherwise, to pursue becoming a footballer. If he doesn't make it, he does not have much to fall back on. Plus his parents are nagging him to go to some college, even if his heart is not in it. Not as much the case in Holland.

I hope our continued success in world competition together with recent loss of faith among young people in the traditional Korean industrial system of their fathers (just go to school as far as you can get and then get a job with a chaebol and you will be taken care of for life) will open the door to more able Korean youngsters receiving the encouragement and confidence to take on non-traditional pursuits like football.