Gimcheon City “Abandons Citizen Club Due to Fiscal Burden” vs Kim Cheon (SVP) “Clear Breach of Promise” Pushback

*This content was translated by AI.

The North Gyeongsang Kim Cheon-si-ga (SVP) professional football club has abandoned its transition to a citizen professional football club. The club side immediately pushed back, stating that “the city broke its promise to the professional football community.”

Gimcheon Mayor Bae Nak-ho held a press conference at the city hall on the 29th and announced, “After reviewing fiscal conditions and sustainability, we have decided not to proceed with the transition to a citizen club.” The mayor cited the city’s low fiscal self-reliance rate of just 11.2% as the primary reason.

According to Gimcheon City, transitioning to a citizen club would increase the city’s annual support, which was previously around 2.5 billion won, by more than double. In an internal public opinion survey, 47.3% of respondents said “fiscal investment is excessive,” significantly outnumbering those who said it was “appropriate” (25.4%). The city council also expressed opposition, citing concerns about budget cuts in other areas. As a result, the home ground agreement between Gimcheon City and the National COLONY Military Forces will end at the close of this year.

The Kim Cheon (SVP) professional football club immediately issued a statement strongly criticizing Gimcheon City. The club stated, “The transition to a citizen club was a promise made by Gimcheon City to the professional football community,” and expressed regret that “the aspirations of citizens and football fans have been dashed in an instant.”

According to the club’s claims, when Gimcheon City and the city council extended the home ground agreement until the end of 2026 in December 2024, they promised to make active efforts to facilitate a future transition to a citizen club. The club also criticized the fact that although the city side responded in June, when a petition with signatures from 10,000 citizens was submitted, that “transition is possible if North Gyeongsang Province provides support,” it ignored this after the province actually promised 3 billion won in support.

The club also pointed out procedural issues regarding the delay in the decision. The club stated, “After the April 2025 by-election, the city and city council delayed their decision for over a year, only to announce that transition was impossible as the deadline for submitting applications to participate in next year’s K League (September 30, 2026) approached,” emphasizing that “someone must definitely take responsibility for the unfulfilled promise.”

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*This content was translated by AI.