Culture Ministry Holds Full Meeting of Professional Football Growth Committee... Seeking Solutions for Sustainable Growth

On the afternoon of May 11, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced that it would hold a full meeting of the 'Professional Football Growth Committee' at the Seoul branch of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art to discuss on-site challenges and policy directions for the sustainable growth of professional football.

Professional football continues to show growth across key indicators such as attendance, revenue, and league size. Last year, the number of spectators reached 3.53 million, which is a 66% increase compared to 2.12 million in 2015. Revenue also rose to 630.1 billion won, a 106% increase from 305.4 billion won in 2015.

However, in order to sustain this growth, there have been ongoing calls for solutions to structural challenges, such as improving the reliability of refereeing decisions, enhancing the quality of stadium turf, and upgrading the spectator experience. In response, the Ministry launched the Growth Committee on February 11 in collaboration with the Korea Professional Football League, the Korea Football Association, as well as experts in the sports industry and match operations. Since then, discussions have focused on field issues and support needs, centering around three subcommittees: human resources, infrastructure, and industrialization.

On the 15th at Ulsan Munsu Football Stadium, in the professional football Hana Bank K League 1 2026 match between Ulsan Hyundai and FC Seoul, Seoul's Huiz and Ulsan's Jeong Seunghyun are competing. Photo by Yonhap News.

This general meeting was organized to comprehensively review the discussions from two previous subcommittee meetings held on March 18 and April 22, and to further develop the tasks proposed by field experts as future policy initiatives.

During the meeting, key issues that fans and those on the ground can tangibly experience will be intensively discussed to ensure that the growth of professional football leads to sustainable advancement. In particular, the committee will explore ways to strengthen the league's "fundamental capabilities," focusing on stadiums, referees, player development, turf, and facilities.

The human resources subcommittee will focus on restoring trust in refereeing decisions as a core task. Plans to enhance the consistency and credibility of officiating include establishing an integrated referee management system, piloting semi-automated offside detection technology, improving referee training and evaluation systems, and expanding education on Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology.

The infrastructure subcommittee will focus on improving the quality of stadium turf. Since turf quality directly affects both player performance and the spectator experience, the committee will examine ways to upgrade stadium management systems, including equipment, staffing, and maintenance standards.

The industrialization subcommittee will discuss utilizing stadiums as key hubs for increasing club revenues and expanding fan experiences. This includes developing revenue models for non-match days, expanding areas for food, beverage, and merchandise sales, and creating multi-purpose experiential spaces to boost stadium utilization and reinforce club self-sufficiency. Additionally, the agenda will cover improving broadcast quality and expanding data-driven online content.

Choi Hwi-Young, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, stated, "For professional football to continue its growth, we must simultaneously strengthen the league's fundamental capabilities by increasing attendance, improving the reliability of refereeing decisions, enhancing stadium environments such as turf, and diversifying club revenue streams. The Ministry will seek out support measures so that professional football can be even more beloved by the public and grow as a core content of the sports industry, based on the voices from the field."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.