The possibility of a series of forfeits for Gwangju FC has finally come to the forefront. Pohang Steelers officially raised an objection regarding Gwangju FC's registration and participation of 'ineligible players.'

A Pohang official noted in a call with OSEN on the 19th, "Today, the club filed an objection with the Korea Professional Football Federation regarding Gwangju's use of an ineligible player. We sent an official document containing this information to the federation."

Additionally, "There is a possibility that players registered by Gwangju during the winter transfer market, including Heis and Liquor Tax, may be interpreted as ineligible players. Therefore, we have raised an objection."

Pohang lost 0-1 to Gwangju in the 14th round of the Hana Bank K League 1 2025 held at Pohang Steel Yard on the 18th. However, if Pohang's objection is upheld later, the result will change to a 0-3 forfeiture for Gwangju.

According to Article 33, Section 2 of the federation's competition regulations, 'If an ineligible player participates in an official match and this is discovered either during or after the match, and an objection is raised by the opposing club within 48 hours after the match, the team that fielded the ineligible player will be considered to have forfeited, regardless of the actual match result.'

Recently, Gwangju came under scrutiny after it was belatedly revealed that it had received a player registration ban from the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) in December of last year. The issue stemmed from an unpaid solidarity contribution of $3,000 (approximately 4.17 million won) related to the acquisition of foreign striker Asani in 2023.

The solidarity contribution is a system by which 5% of the transfer fee of professional football players is distributed to the school or club where the player belonged between the ages of 12 and 23. In the past, this was transferred directly from club to club, but now, the club acquiring the player remits the solidarity contribution to FIFA, which then distributes the amount.

Gwangju did not intentionally fail to pay Asani's solidarity contribution. Gwangju attempted to make the payment since August of last year and actually did transfer the funds to the account. However, due to a minor amount discrepancy, the deposited amount was repeatedly returned.

The Gwangju club communicated with the bank and FIFA to retry the payment, but this too was challenging. Meanwhile, in September of last year, the staff member, referred to as A, responsible for the task took a leave of absence, and the handover was not properly conducted. Time passed, and FIFA imposed a ban on Gwangju's player registrations.

The problem is that Gwangju was unable to properly grasp the fact that it had received a ban. FIFA sent an official letter containing the disciplinary content to the Korea Football Association (KFA), and the KFA subsequently relayed this to the Gwangju club. However, the responsible staff member A is still on leave and has not been able to properly check the emails.

As a result, Gwangju brought in several players during the winter transfer market without recognizing the ban and successfully registered them. During this process, the KFA did not check again to see if Gwangju had resolved the disciplinary issue.

Literally an unprecedented situation. Normally, players who should not have been registered were allowed to be registered as Gwangju players and participated in K League 1, the Korea Cup, and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League Elite (ACLE) matches.

Consequently, there are concerns that Gwangju could face 20 forfeits from all competitions this year due to the use of ineligible players. Some clubs are already reported to have made similar claims to the federation. Pohang's objection is in the same vein.

For now, the most critical situation is the judgment of FIFA, the highest authority. Gwangju is currently trying to pay the outstanding solidarity contribution and a fine of 5,000 Swiss francs (approximately 8.34 million won) and is waiting for FIFA's interpretation.

First of all, the KFA stated that it is difficult to view Gwangju's players as ineligible. The KFA reported, "This incident is an administrative oversight without intention. Thus, it would be excessive to judge the players who participated in previous matches as 'ineligible players.'"

Furthermore, "We believe that it is more important to ensure the participation qualifications of players without liability by acknowledging the results of previous matches rather than redefining these players as ineligible and reversing past match results, thereby ensuring the stability of the competitions and the league." This effectively excludes the ban.

However, the higher period is separate from FIFA and AFC's disciplinary actions, so it is uncertain what kind of sanction Gwangju will face in the future. Gwangju can only hope that its claim of not being a deliberate nonpayment will be accepted. If all the players registered during the winter transfer market are deemed ineligible, many players, including Park Jung-in, Heis, and Liquor Tax, will not be able to participate until the next registration period.

The federation is currently waiting for the final decisions from other organizations. Since player registration falls under the jurisdiction of the KFA, the federation cannot independently decide on the ineligibility of players. A federation official stated, "We received a document from Pohang. The legal team is reviewing it. We need to observe the situation further."

[Photo] Provided by the Korea Professional Football Federation.

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