*This content was translated by AI.
While professional soccer K League city and provincial citizen teams face fierce criticism over wasteful use of public funds and poor management, another citizen team funded by taxpayers is set to launch.
According to the soccer community on the 13th, the Founding Promotion Committee for the Samcheok Citizen Football Club (provisional name) held its inauguration ceremony the previous day and has officially begun preparations for establishment. Samcheok City has a population of 60,000.
The committee plans to finalize institutional and facility preparations—including enacting support ordinances, repairing stadium facilities, and signing a home base agreement—by next month, obtain final approval from the Korea Football Association, officially establish the club in November, and begin competing in the K4 League starting next year.
The annual budget required for operating the Samcheok Citizen Football Club has been set at approximately 1.2 billion won, fully covered by Samcheok City's budget—that is, public funds.
According to the detailed breakdown of the 1.2 billion won annual operating costs, it includes salaries for seven players earning 25 million won each, a head coach (50 million won), and two coaches (0.3 billion won each), totaling 78 million won in coaching staff salaries. Additionally, training allowances of 96 million won and victory bonuses of 96 million won are also entirely funded by public money.
The Founding Promotion Committee stated that establishing a citizen team would channel over 70% of labor costs into local spending on accommodation and food, contributing to increased sales for small business owners, while also boosting city recognition through media exposure under the Samcheok Citizen Football Club name, thereby activating the regional economy and strengthening the city's brand.
Furthermore, the committee added that approximately 30 players in their 20s and 30s along with staff would relocate to Samcheok City, securing population growth, and that the club would directly create 35–40 jobs and indirectly generate 14–16 more, resulting in an average annual job creation effect of over 50 positions. Youth development and expansion of sports participation were also cited as expected benefits of the club's establishment.
However, some in the region have raised concerns that establishing a citizen soccer team funded by 1.2 billion won annually from public resources is inappropriate.
Kim Ji-young, a Democratic Party of Korea council member for Samcheok City, recently criticized on her personal social media (SNS): "They claim they will spend over 1.2 billion won in public funds annually, yet plan to create a separate foundation and call it the 'Samcheok Citizen Football Club' as if it were operated by private institutional investors."
She continued: "If the committee members contribute their own personal funds to establish it, that would be sufficient. Yet they insist on proceeding without even consulting citizens, citing Mayor Park Sang-soo's campaign promise as justification." She further noted, "The regular education programs for the Lifelong Learning Center (including three locations in downtown Samcheok, Dogye, and Wondeok), which involve over 1,100 citizens, have an annual budget of only about 350 million won."
While the budget scale differs from other professional teams, given that other city and provincial citizen teams are already under intense criticism for wasteful spending and poor management, news of the Samcheok Citizen Football Club's establishment is bound to attract even stronger criticism.
Recently, representatives of K League city and provincial teams faced legal action after traveling on a business trip to Cancun, Mexico, where they used club budgets—i.e., taxpayer money—to pay for business class tickets instead of economy class. In another incident, Gimpo FC in the K League 2 was embroiled in controversy when it was revealed that an employee had embezzled over 8 billion won in public funds over several years.
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*This content was translated by AI.
