Controversy over participating in 'unqualified players' → Even the possibility of forfeiture... Pohang filed an 'official objection' immediately after the match against Gwangju
Controversy over participating in 'unqualified players' → Even the possibility of forfeiture... Pohang filed an 'official objection' immediately after the match against Gwangju
Blog Article
The Pohang Steelers of the K-League 1 raised an objection to the Korea Professional Football Federation regarding Gwangju FC's unqualified players. According to the federation's regulations, if it is confirmed that an unqualified player participates, the club will be given a "confiscation loss" disciplinary action.
According to the Star News report on Sunday, the Pohang team sent an official letter to the effect that Gwangju had fielded players who were not eligible for the match at the 14th round of Hana Bank K League 1 2025 held at Stillyard in Pohang the previous day. After receiving the official letter, the federation is reportedly reviewing related matters through its legal team and others.
According to Article 33 (2) of the Federation's Regulations, if an unqualified player's participation in an official game is discovered during or after the game and an objection is raised by the other club within 48 hours of the end of the game, the club in which the unqualified player played is considered to have lost 0-3.
According to the regulations, unqualified players means all players who are not eligible to play at that point, including those who are not registered in the K-League, those who have been suspended due to accumulation of warnings or withdrawal, those who violate the rules on punishment and punishment by the Commission, and those who violate the restrictions on foreign participation.
Pohang's team raised its objection because some of the Gwangju players who participated on the day were recruited after the Gwangju club received a "disciplinary ban on player registration" from FIFA last year. These players cannot be registered in the K-League under the regulations and are therefore not eligible to play. Pohang lost 0-1 to Park In-hyuk in the 44th minute of the second half, and coincidentally, Park In-hyuk is also a player who was recruited after FIFA's disciplinary action.
The Gwangju club was previously banned by FIFA due to the issue of failing to pay joint contributions. The joint contribution system distributes part of the transfer fee when a player is recruited to teams that played under the age of 23, including youth. At that time, the joint contribution that the Gwangju club had to remit to FIFA was only 3,000 U.S. dollars.
However, according to the Gwangju club, there was a problem during the remittance process at that time, and the person in charge was furloughed and the transition was not properly transferred, resulting in an " unpaid status." Eventually, FIFA banned the registration of players at the Gwangju club as of December 17 last year, but even this was not properly grasped by the club as well as the Korea Football Association. Gwangju recruited more than 10 players during the period when they were banned from registering players by FIFA, and the Korea Football Association also registered them.
As the controversy grew, the Korea Football Association said on the 16th, "It is an accident caused by an unintentional administrative mistake, and it is too much to judge the players from Gwangju who participated in the game as "unqualified players." However, the Gwangju club left a spark of controversy by continuing to play players who were recruited during the disciplinary period, including the match against Pohang, even after they were aware of FIFA's disciplinary action.
Eventually, as the Pohang club officially raised an objection to the federation after the game, another controversy was inevitable over the interpretation and results of the players' qualifications to play during the ban on player registration. An official of the federation explained through Star News, "Disciplinary measures under the federation regulations are separate from the position announced by the 온라인카지노 Korea Football Association earlier."
Meanwhile, in March, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League 2 quarterfinal match between Sanfrecce Hiroshima (Japan) and Ryan City (Singapore) also suffered a forfeited loss due to an unqualified player. It was later revealed that Hiroshima, who played at the time, was being suspended from three games received from his former team. Hiroshima won 6-1 against Ryan City, but was disciplined immediately after the game after being questioned by the Lion City team. Hiroshima's 6-1 victory turned into a 0-3 forfeiture loss due to "unqualified players" disciplinary action.