The Korea Football Association's 'Reform of Judgment', Chairman Chung Mong-gyu himself announced

*This content was translated by AI.

Chung Mong-kyu, president of the Korea Football Association, declared a "reform of refereeing" himself. He said he would come up with a plan for reforming the referee, which had been criticized a lot, at the level of the Korea Football Association. The Korea Football Association is in charge of all referee-related management and operation in Korea, including the professional soccer K-League.

In his New Year's address through the Korea Football Association on the 1st, Chairman Chung Mong-gyu said, "We will come up with specific reform measures in the referee section, which was criticized a lot last season." The will is to restore the trust of the people and fans who have fallen significantly through innovation in the Korea Football Association, including referee reform.

One of the biggest issues in Korean soccer, including last year's K-League, was the "controversy over misjudgment." Throughout the season, there has been a lot of controversy over the decision regardless of the K League 1 and 2. Judges can make mistakes as much as they are humans, but there were also misjudgment that could doubt the referee's qualities beyond simple mistakes. Moreover, there were cases where absurd misjudgment came out even after using video reading introduced to reduce misjudgment.

In the end, Moon Jin-hee, chairman of the Korea Football Association's referee committee, even attended a parliamentary audit and was criticized for the controversy over the misjudgment. Recently, there have been reports that the chairman of the judging committee has given preferential treatment to certain judges who have frequent misjudgment. Beyond the ability of individual referees, it has also spread to distrust of the Korean Football Association's referee management and operation structure itself. The reality is that the distrust extends beyond clubs or fans who have suffered from misjudgment and across the soccer world.

Eventually, Chairman Chung Mong-gyu even included in his New Year's address, which marks 2026, about "referee reform." In line with the continuous reform of the Korea Football Association based on the three major innovations announced in March last year, he promised, "We will restore the trust of soccer fans step by step by step by becoming an association responsible for the principles, the process transparent, and the results."

Naturally, attention has been drawn to how much the Korea Football Association will come up with and push for a plan for referee reform this year. Distrust of the Korea Football Association and referees is so extreme that a "bold" reform is inevitable. Only then can we expect a little bit of the ultimate goal of restoring the trust of the people and fans.

The question is whether Chairman Chung Mong-gyu can push for reforms at that level as a leader. Right now, the appointment of Moon Jin-hee, chairman of the judging committee itself, took place at the 55th executive branch of Chairman Chung Mong-gyu in May last year. With conflicts with referees inevitable during the reform process, it is unclear whether Chung will be able to take this and pursue drastic reforms.

If it shows a strong commitment to reforming the referee and goes ahead with it, it could remain one of the meaningful achievements of Chairman Chung Mong-gyu's system. On the contrary, if a direct declaration of referee reform is not an either-or-or-not, but only a "show-or-show" reform, not only distrust of referees but also distrust of the "Chairman Chung's system" Korea Football Association will be greater than before. This is why attention is focused on the method and level of referee reform that Chairman Chung directly mentioned.

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*This content was translated by AI.