*This content was translated by AI.
The Korea Football Association (KFA), which promised to strengthen external communication regarding refereeing decisions, has effectively rendered its pledged "Monday Briefing" a non-event. This comes six months after Vice President Lee personally hosted a referee policy announcement and previewed the Monday Briefing. The KFA, which never conducted even a single Monday Briefing, now plans to explain related issues through press release-style decision briefings instead. Consequently, the so-called controversy over a lack of communication regarding refereeing decisions is bound to continue.
On the 25th, the KFA announced it would restructure the Professional Referee Evaluation Committee, which determines whether key referee decisions in weekly K League matches are correct or erroneous, by changing its composition from four full-time KFA referees and analysts to three members from the Korea Professional Football League who are not former referees. The Professional Referee Evaluation Committee is an organization responsible for determining whether decisions are correct or erroneous and for establishing the ratings that serve as criteria for referee promotion and demotion.
At the same time, the KFA also announced it would proceed with "Decision Briefings," which compile and distribute the review results of the Professional Referee Evaluation Committee on major decisions. Park Il-gi, Head of the Tournament Operations Division, stated, "We originally promised a 'Monday Briefing' to provide immediate guidance when major issues related to refereeing decisions arise, but in reality, more significant matters require in-depth official discussions through the Professional Referee Evaluation Committee rather than by a small number of individuals. Going forward, we plan to guide the public on issue-related matters through 'Decision Briefings' held via meetings of the Professional Referee Evaluation Committee."
In fact, last month on the 14th, the KFA first publicly disclosed the results of the Referee Evaluation Committee meeting regarding the Ulsan HD vs. Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors decision through the media. Subsequently, it distributed briefing materials to explain controversial decisions in matches such as Jeju SK vs. Gangwon FC on the 23rd and Cheongju vs. Suwon Samsung Bluewings on the 4th of this month. The KFA's explanation is that going forward, it will explain decision-related issues through press releases instead of holding separate briefings.
The problem is that while the now-defunct Monday Briefing itself was ultimately focused on "communication," the Decision Briefing intended to replace it remains essentially a one-way announcement. Previously, the KFA explained the introduction of the Monday Briefing as the core of "external communication innovation," stating, "As the name suggests, we will proceed immediately on Mondays without delay when major issues related to refereeing arise. This follows the symposium's view that 'early response is important.'" Naturally, it was expected that at the briefing sessions, questions would be raised not only about the most controversial decisions but also about other matches and various rulings, leading to communication through explanations.
In contrast, for Decision Briefings, the selection of which controversial matches or problematic decisions to address rests entirely with the KFA. The same applies to the explanations provided regarding those decisions. For instance, matches with relatively lower public interest can be excluded from the explanation targets by the KFA itself, and even blatantly erroneous calls can be ignored at the KFA's discretion. Conversely, among controversial decisions, only those concluded as "correct" can be selected for briefing. In fact, of the five scenes from the three Decision Briefings conducted by the KFA this year, no fewer than four resulted in a "correct decision conclusion."
Similarly, the YouTube content "VAR ON: Re-watching That Decision," introduced last year with similar intentions by the KFA, ultimately failed to meet fans' expectations and has increasingly drawn harsh criticism over time. The issue was not merely that updates occurred after an excessively long period following the emergence of decision controversies. More critically, highly controversial decisions were often omitted entirely, or content focused primarily on decisions concluded as "correct" rather than admitting errors, leading to strong criticism. One-way communication ultimately led to choices favorable only to the KFA. The high interest in the Monday Briefing stemmed from expectations that it would serve as a starting point for communication regarding refereeing decisions, but the KFA has ultimately closed this channel.
Explaining why a scene of an erroneous call controversy is deemed correct according to regulations is also very important. However, what fans, players, and clubs truly desire is for the KFA to quickly acknowledge decisions that were indeed erroneous, explain how such errors occurred, and outline future improvements. By quietly rendering the promised Monday Briefing a non-event and substituting it with one-way explanatory materials, the KFA effectively admits that its willingness to communicate regarding refereeing decisions has not changed from previous years. A lack of communication regarding decisions inevitably leads to distrust.
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*This content was translated by AI.
